Andhra Pradesh CM, Chandrababu Naidu. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran/File)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday reiterated his demand for a special category status, underlining that the state will only be financially stable if all assurances given in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, were fulfilled and implemented.
“Even after 4 years of bifurcation, AP is suffering. Congress faced the wrath of people as they did injustice, now people are thinking if BJP will follow the same course. We accepted special assistance as the Centre said there are problems with Special Category Status,” Naidu was quoted as saying by ANI. He was addressing the TDP Parliamentary Board meeting.
“The Centre is giving Special Category Status to other states. How? In such a case, we too need SCS. YSRCP is speaking of SCS, but leaving rest 18 points. SCS alone is not enough, all points in the act must be implemented. Only then AP will be financially stable,” he said while maintaining that the state was given a raw deal and it is encountering problems.
In September last year, Naidu had accepted the special package announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. For the first time, Naidu, however, directly raised the special status issue last week, saying that the special category status is the state’s right and that they will continue to fight for it. He further said that in the last three-and-a-half years, Andhra Pradesh achieved a lot of growth, but it would have done much better had all the promises made in Parliament were fulfilled.
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The ruling TDP has been forced to take a tough stand on the special category status issue after the Opposition YSRCP has stepped up its campaign. Since the Union Budget was presented, leaders of the TDP and BJP have been trading accusations over central assistance, with the former alleging that Andhra Pradesh had been ignored.
CM had also threatened to bring a no-confidence motion against the Centre in Parliament to demand “justice”, albeit as a “last resort”.
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