Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a galaxy of leaders, including Chief Ministers, are being invited by Telugu Desam President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister-designate, N. Chandrababu Naidu for his swearing- in ceremony, planned to be held on a grand scale on June 8 between Guntur and Vijayawada. Mr. Naidu will take the oath at 7.30 p.m. and the first file to be cleared will be on farm loan waiver.
Mr. Naidu is leaving here for Delhi on Friday morning to invite Mr. Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Punjab Chief Minister, Prakash Singh Badal among other dignitaries.
He is also extending invitations to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, Odisha Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik and the Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Central helpBesides inviting Mr. Modi and Mr. Rajnath Singh, Mr. Naidu will also be using the visit to press residuary Andhra Pradesh State’s case for Central help in financial, infrastructure and other sectors. He would also call on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti and Union Agriculture Minister, Radha Mohan Singh in this regard.
He is slated to meet the Chairman of the 14 Finance Commission, Y.V. Reddy with proposals to overcome the financial crunch in Andhra Pradesh.
According to TDP sources, he would be urging the Centre to fully meet the deficit budget of about Rs.15,000 crore for this year and extend the same facility at least for the next two years. He would also take up the need to extend the Special Category status for Andhra Pradesh from five to 10-15 years.
Wish listHe would be seeking additional tax incentives and is likely to request the Prime Minister to instruct various ministries for taking up promotional activity in regard to the tax incentives offered by Andhra Pradesh. On the infrastructure front, the Chief Minister-designate would seek expeditious action in upgrading Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati airports into international standards, besides developing a chain of ports along the Andhra coast.
Mr. Naidu, the sources said, would also pursue with the Centre the issue of special package for the development of north coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.
