The Special Category Status issue rocked the Legislative Assembly on Thursday with the main Opposition YSR Congress Party insisting on a debate on the issue.
The YSR Congress members led by Opposition leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy staged a protest near the Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu’s statue in front of the Assembly demanding that the State be granted Special Category Status. Clad in black shirts, the YSRCP members raised slogans against the failure of the Government in convincing the Central Government to accord the coveted status that would put the State on an accelerated path of growth.
“CM mortgaged A.P. interests”
Mr. Jagan criticised Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for mortgaging the State’s interests to the Centre by accepting the package proposed by the Centre. “How can he [Mr. Naidu] welcome the package announced by the Centre?” he asked.
The Chief Minister should, instead, tender his resignation from the post and withdraw his party MPs from the Union Cabinet to mount pressure on the Central government, he said. He asserted that the packages proposed by the Centre would be of no use to the State as they would not help attract investments and industrial growth. Only special category status which entails tax exemptions and sops to industries would ensure that there was rapid industrial growth in the State.
“Why will the industries come to Vijayawada when they are not offered any concessions?” he sought to know. Mr. Jagan gave a call for State bandh on Saturday in protest against the government’s failure to secure special status to the State in spite of an assurance being made on the floor of Parliament. He said he had spoken to the Left parties’ leaders and sought their cooperation in making the bandh a success.
"There is a need to put up a united fight to convince the Centre," he said. The YSRC members later staged a padayatra to the Assembly as a mark of their protest.
