Congress plans State-wide awareness campaign on SCS

Claiming that the YSRCP and the TDP are scared to bring pressure on the BJP-led NDA government to grant the Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh, former Union Minister and Congress Working Committee (CWC) member P. Chinta Mohan on Thursday said that his party would organise a series of awareness campaigns in a phased manner to educate people on the benefits of getting the tag.

“Only the Congress could fulfil the promise made to the State in the run-up to the bifurcation,” Mr. Chinta Mohan told the media at Varadaiahpalem, after visiting several SC colonies in Satyavedu assembly constituency.

“Neither the YSRCP nor the TDP is serious about fighting for the SCS tag. Even as the Jana Sena Party had initially championed the cause, it made a U turn after forging a tie-up with the BJP, which had ‘out-rightly denied’ the privilege to the State,” he said.

Bifurcation blues

Post bifurcation, he said, Andhra Pradesh was in financial crisis, coupled with spiraling unemployment. “Industrialists are reluctant to invest in the State, given the volatile situation. At this juncture, only the SCS tag can salvage the State’s finance,” said Mr. Chinta Mohan.

The Congress government at the Centre had set the things in motion for according the SCS to the economically backward areas such as Jammu and Kashmir and north-eastern States. “Losing the SCS battle will be an irreparable loss to the State,” he said.