NEW DELHI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N
Chandrababu Naidu began his day long fast on Friday in
Amaravati on the occasion of his birthday to protest the Centre's non-cooperation with the state.
Stay tuned for the latest updates:
* Naidu's
hunger strike at the Indira Gandhi Stadium will continue till 7pm to pressurise the Centre to grant the Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh.
* The chief minister began his fasting after paying tributes to Dr BR Ambedkar and NTR.
* Several ministers and party MLAs also sit on fast along with the chief minister.
* Naidu said the TDP will play a crucial role at the Centre in the coming days.
* The Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Centre have been at the loggerheads ever since the announcement of 2018-19 Union Budget.
* Employee associations and few other organizations fighting for special category status are also present in the stadium.
* CM Naidu' fast began at the
Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium filled with TDP rank and file in Amaravati.
Key facts about Special Category Status (SCS)
The Special Category Status was first accorded in 1969 to Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Nagaland. Over the years, eight more states were added to the list -- Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and, finally, in 2010, Uttarakhand.
The Centre pays 90 per cent of the funds required in a centrally-sponsored scheme to SCS category states as against 60 per cent in case of normal category states, while the remaining funds are provided by the state governments.
N Chandrababu Naidu