Former MP Yalamanchili Sivaji on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and the TDP government in the State for what he called “reducing a serious issue like the Special Category Status (SCS) to mockery”.
“People of the entire State are pinning hopes on the SCS as their future and welfare is linked to it. But what unfolded on Wednesday was more or less a comedy show enacted by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu,” he told The Hindu .
Expansion of central institutesReferring to Mr. Jaitley’s claims, the former MP reminded that it was the policy of the Union government to locate IITs, IIMs, Central universities and branches of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in all states.
“On June 9 in 2014, President Pranab Mukherjee, addressing both Houses of Parliament, had said that these institutes ought to be established in every State. Earlier in 2003, the then President Abdul Kalam had also mentioned that it was the policy of the government to establish these institutes in States,” said Mr. Sivaji.
He said as recent as 2014, four new institutes were announced and in 2016, another seven were announced.
Mr. Sivaji said the Centre cannot overlook the fact that AP is the link between the south and the north. A vast stretch of 4,913.60 km-long National Highways runs through the State connecting the north and the south. Similarly, the Vijayawada railway station is the second busiest junction after Mogul Sarai and is touched by 340 trains every day. The State has six functional airports at Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Rajahmundry, Kadapa and Puttaparthi.
