Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to fulfil all promises made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. He asked Modi to conduct a review on the commitments made in the Act and constitute a task force to resolve the issues at the earliest.
He said the Prime Minister responded positively and assured he will examine all the issues and resolve them at the earliest.
“Post bifurcation, we inherited an economy mostly dependent on agriculture sector and lagging behind in service sector and hence, less income for the state. Even after three years, though Andhra Pradesh contributes the highest to GSDP growth, it has the least per capita income among South Indian states. Even 14th Financial Commission said that AP will suffer revenue deficit,” Naidu told media persons after his meeting with the PM.
He said he explained the issues faced by AP and requested the Centre’s “support, handholding and nurturing”.
He said he requested the Prime Minister to release the pending funds in the tune of Rs 16,447 crores through NABARD and other arrangements to fund projects in the ratio of 90:10 between centre and state under Special Assistance Measure announced instead of Special Category Status.
“We also requested to immediately release Rs 3450 crores pending funds for Polavaram along with finalising the latest estimates and expediting the project construction,” he added.
“The Centre has released only Rs 3,979 crores towards bridging resource gap against Rs 16,078 Crores. There have been several discussions in the past and we now requested the Prime Minister to sort this issue”, he said adding he also sought the early resolution on setting up of a Railway Zone in Visakhapatnam and Cracker and Petroleum Complex in Kakinada.
Pointing out that the Centre has so far released Rs 2500 crores for the new capital Amaravati, Naidu said he requested the Prime Minister to ensure continuous support to build a Greenfield capital which will be pride for the nation. He said he also discussed about releasing funds for setting up of institutions in 13th schedule of AP Reorganisation Act.
“Along with setting up of Duggarajapatnam Port, I requested the PM to increase Legislative Assembly seats from 175 currently to 225 as per the bifurcation act. I also requested him to sort out the issue of anomaly of taxation where tax revenue from industries in AP is going to Telangana as their Headquarters is in Hyderabad,” he pointed out.
Naidu said he even discussed the issues concerning steel plant in Kadapa, Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor, Metro Rail in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, Rapid road and rail connectivity to Amaravati.