Modi government lied on special status for AP: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh

VIJAYAWADA: Senior Congress leader and former minister Jairam Ramesh calls NDA Government a “liar” and said it had lied about 14th Finance Commission recommending against giving Special Category Status (SCS) to the State.

Speaking to mediapersons in Vijayawada on Sunday, Jairam said the 14th Commission had never recommended against giving SCS. “I even asked Y Venugopal Reddy, who was heading the 14th Finance Commission and he said it was never mentioned in his 400-page report,” he pointed out.

When the SCS has been continued for the 11 States, with Uttarakhand being the latest, why Andhra Pradesh was denied the same, he asked.

“There was a gap of several months between June 2014 when Naidu took over as the Chief Minister and February 2015 when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made an announcement that SCS is discontinued. What was Naidu doing all those months? Sleeping?,” he questioned.

Dismissing the protest of the TDP MPs over SCS and ‘injustice’ done to State as mere “drama”, he wondered why Naidu did not do this ‘drama’ for SCS in those seven months.

He reiterated that the UPA government was sincere about Polavaram issue.

“It was a national project and without amending the Act, the State Government is executing it only for kickbacks,” he charged.

The former minister found fault with Chandrababu Naidu for wrongly taking credit for merger of seven submerged mandals under Polavaram in Telangana with AP.

“It was the decision of the UPA government. Even Home Minister Rajnath Singh has admitted it,” he said.

Stating that all parties were party to the bifurcation of the State, however, he said, the Congress, which was last to get on board, was punished.

With regard to non-inclusion of SCS in the AP Reorganisation Act, he said it was an executive order just like the one issued by the then NDA government for according the same to Uttarakhand.

“That State was formed in 2000 and SCS was given to it in 2002. It was not included in the Bifurcation Act of that State,” he reminded.