The Andhra Pradesh assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution, following Arun Jaitley’s assurance to implement all promises made to AP during the bifurcation, requesting the union government to grant Special Category Status to the state and implement all provisions according to the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
AP’s chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu moved the resolution under the Rule 77 in the assembly on 16 March. The CM presented a list of 17 priority points to help AP recover from the fiscal deficit.
Naidu expressed his gratitude to the Centre for all the assistance extended to the state thus far. The Centre has granted Rs 1,500 crores to help build the capital city Amaravati. He added that based on preliminary estimation a whopping 125 lakh crores would be required to build the new capital city over a period of 20 years.
The TDP moved resolution said: While thanking the efforts of the Union Government in resolving certain issues pertaining to the state reorganisation, the House unanimously resolves to request the Government of India to implement expeditiously all the provisions contained in the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 and assurances made in Parliament and to continue to handhold the state till it achieves level-playing field on par with neighbouring states.”
Some of the key resolution points include:
– To release balance grant to bridge the resource gap
– To complete the Polavaram irrigation project (a national project) by 2018
– To devise fiscal measures like tax incentives to promote industrialisation and economic growth
– To provide special financial support for the new capital
– To construct the Railway Zone at Visakhapatnam
– To increase the number of seats in the legislative assembly from 175 to 225
– To amend presidential order pertaining to local status with regard to education and employment
– To establish a steel plant at Kadapa, the port at Dugarajapatna, and amend the AP Reorganisation Act to correct anomalies pertaining to taxation issues
Congress had lost its ground in both states during the 2014 elections. But they continue the fight to implement all promises made to AP at the time of the split while heavily criticizing the present NDA-led BJP government over the delay. A delegation of Congress leaders from AP, led by APCC president Raghuveera Reddy, submitted a collection of one crore signatures favouring special category status for AP to Sonia Gandhi at a programme organized at Congress’ office in New Delhi. Both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi assured to further push the Centre to implement the promises made.
