The Centre has rubbished the Telugu Desam Party’s charge that Andhra Pradesh was denied special category status (SCS), and assured the State of more financial aid than such a status could provide. It said the 14th Finance Commission report prohibits the Centre from giving special consideration to any State.
Replying to a three-hour-long short duration discussion on “Implementation of the provisions of AP Reorganisation Act” in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the Centre is committed to fulfil the promises it made to the people of Andhra Pradesh.
He said 11 of the 12 institutions promised for post-bifurcation Andhra Pradesh had begun functioning. He said a committee had been constituted by the Centre to look into the feasibility of certain projects, including the construction of a major port at Dugarajapatnam. A task force would look into a report that declared unfeasible the setting up of two steel projects in the State.
On work done
Singh listed the steps taken by the Centre to ensure “justice” for Andhra Pradesh and said ₹6,766 crore had been earmarked for the Polavaram project. He said the Centre had issued an Ordinance so that areas that were part of Telangana after the reorganisation were added to Andhra Pradesh, so that Polavaram project would not be delayed. “We will complete the project on time,” he said and reassured the State that a separate railway zone would be created as per the State’s request.
On the demand for SCS, the Home Minister said there was a conflict between then prime minister Manmohan Singh’s commitment, and the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission. He said the Centre had given the State more aid than an SCS would.
Singh said the Opposition and the TDP were obsessed with the word ‘special status’. “Why are you just stuck on special category status. Why don’t you just move on? The idea behind SCS is that the State should get assistance. We are giving more assistance than that,” he claimed.
‘Commitments should be honoured’
Making a rare intervention, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged the Centre to fulfil the commitments made to the State.
“Commitments made on the floor of the House are to be honoured and fulfilled. They are in the nature of an assurance on behalf of Parliament. I had expected my distinguished successor to fulfil the commitment I had made after consultation with his own colleagues,” he said.
BJP discovering a new partner: TDP
TDP leader and former Union minister YS Chowdhary, who initiated the debate, said the fight was between morality and the majority.
“There is a parallel political pattern unfolding in Andhra Pradesh even as our CM has been struggling day and night to build the future of the people of Andhra Pradesh. The core element of this pattern has been that the BJP has begun to discover a new ‘Yours Sincere and Reliable Compromised Partner’ (YSRCP),” he said, in a reference to AP’s principal opposition party, the YSR Congress.
Govt support inadequate: Congress
The Congress, too, supported the TDP’s demands. “A steel plant at Kadapa was promised. That has not been fulfilled. Vishakhapatnam steel plant is not being allotted captive mines in the Kadapa region. For the development of physical and social infrastructure of seven backward districts, the Government of India has just sanctioned ₹150 crore. It is peanuts for the development of seven backward districts,” said Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad.
YSRC member Vijay Sai Reddy said both the TDP and the BJP had failed to fulfil the promises and the stand of the TDP was to deflect public attention from the administration’s failures.