On a day when Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu asked the Centre to honour all the promises it had made to Andhra Pradesh, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday called for a united struggle to achieve Special Category Status (SCS) to the state.
JSP committee
Referring to actor and Jana Sena Party founder Pawan Kalyan’s initiative to constitute a joint fact finding committee by roping in, among others, Congress leader Undavalli Arun Kumar and Lok Satta’s Jayaprakash Narayan, to examine the Central assistance to the State, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy told The Hindu that “it is not necessary to look into whether the State has received a rupee more or less from the Centre as the fund flow has been well documented.”
“Now is the time for all the parties to shed political differences in the larger interest of the State and fight for SCS assured on the Floor of Parliament at the time of bifurcation and approved by the Union Cabinet for implementation by the Planning Commission in March 2014,” he said. The SCS issue dominated his political discourse on the 90th day of his Praja Sankala Yatra in the district.
All the MPs from the State should put in their papers if SCS was not forthcoming by April 5, he said while walking in tandem with party Whip in Parliament Y.V. Subba Reddy and hundreds of activists.
Describing SCS as an “inalienable right” of the State, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy maintained that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had no right to settle for a special package in lieu of SCS.
‘Naidu should explain’
Mr. Naidu owed an explanation to the people on why he did not press for SCS when the Planning Commission was in existence in the first seven months of the NDA Government, he said.
“The TDP, which is part of the Union Cabinet that has approved all the four Budgets, cannot cry hoarse now about the injustice to the State. Is this not a drama?” he asked, and maintained that the 14th Finance Commission member, Abhijit Sen, had said that its members had never stated that SCS was not needed for Andhra Pradesh.
Disputes BJP contention
Disputing the contention of the BJP that all the benefits under SCS would accrue to the State even under the special financial assistance, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the State would be the biggest loser in the absence of 100% Income-Tax and GST exemption for new industries enjoyed by States having SCS.
In this context, he referred to the speeches of M. Venkaiah Naidu in the Rajya Sabha at the time of bifurcation pressing for SCS for 10 years as against 5 years assured by the UPA Government and that of the TDP president in Tirupati promising SCS for 15 years in the presence of Narendra Modi in the run-up to the 2014 elections.
