Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu tried hard to see a silver lining in the Lok Sabha statement of Union minister of state for programme implementation Indrajit Singh on Friday in which the latter ruled out special category status for states in future.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the Finance Minister said the written reply of the Union minister did not say anything specific about Andhra Pradesh. The reply was more of a general statement. Andhra Pradesh’s case for special status was different, he said.
He said the state continued to hope for favourable affections from the Centre.
The minister’s case was that special status was an assurance given on the floor of the Rajya Sabha back in 2014 by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when the bill to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh was being debated.
“Irrespective of the government at the Centre, be it UPA or NDA, assurances given in Parliament have to be implemented. We hope the Modi Government will respond positively to the aspirations and demands of the people of Andhra Pradesh,” he said, adding, “We are confident of getting it (special category status) operationalised with the help of the Centre.”
Mr Ramakrishnudu said the government of Andhra Pradesh was faced with many challenges at this juncture. Projects such Amaravati and Polavaram would require the cooperation of the Centre to build. The minister also refuted allegations that TDP MPs did not fight hard enough for special status. The State Government has been lobbying on every possible fora. Mr Ramakrishnudu prefaced his reaction to Mr Inderjit Singh’s statement with a long narration of the difficulties brought upon Andhra Pradesh by bifurcation. The State was devolved lesser finances post bifurcation although its population was higher than Telangana’s. Further along, the 14{+t}{+h}Finance Commission did not recommend any special package for the State. While ostensibly the Centre’s devolution on states increased from 32 per cent to 42 per cent, that benefit was offset by a decrease in grants to the state from 65 per cent to 62 per cent, he explained.
Written reply of the Union minister did not say anything specific about
Andhra Pradesh,
says Yanamala
