Congress Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao has urged Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu to bring together all NDA partners to support the private member bill moved by him on the special category status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh, on May 13.
In a letter addressed to the Union Minister, Dr. Rao said the Union Minister could be a shining star by ensuring NDA partners’ support to the private member’s bill. Recollecting Mr. Naidu’s association with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress MP requested him to use his good office with the premier and bring in his experience as the past president of BJP to support the private bill on SCS to AP.
Dr. Rao termed the comments of Union Minister of State for Home Haribhai Choudhuri during the discussion on the private member’s bill that a lot had already been done to AP and only a little was left to be done, giving an impression that there was no necessity to SCS to AP, was in deed a ‘valiant’ step. Similarly, the minister had stated in a written reply in Lok Sabha on April 25 that the Centre was not in a position to fill even the fiscal deficit of AP, lest the SCS. Reminding Mr. Naidu that no member from Seemandhra region, including ministers, were either present either in the Lok Sabha or in the Rajya Sabha or supported it during the passage of AP Reorganisation Bill, the Congress MP said the former had supported the bill in Rajya Sabha by speaking on ‘behalf’ of Seemandhra people, although he was representing Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.
