Vijayawada: Former Union minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday wrote to Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu asking him to direct the Union government to implement in a specific time-bound manner the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 and to fulfil the assurances given by the then prime minister on the floor of the House to break the stalemate in Rajya Sabha that has been prevailing for some time due to disruption by Telugu MPs.
In the letter, he recalled that the Rajya Sabha passed AP Reorganisation Act on February 20, 2014. Before it was passed, the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had made a brief intervention in which he had six solemn commitments on behalf of the government of India to people of the successor state of Andhra Pradesh. These commitments were discussed and finalised with Naidu and the then Leader of the Opposition before they were announced.
“The Rajya Sabha has not been able to function for well over a week because members representing Andhra Pradesh have been demanding, and rightfully so, that the promises be implemented in letter and spirit regarding the Act passed by this House as also the implementation of the solemn assurances made by the then Prime Minister on the floor of the House,” the former Union minister told in the letter.
