After a year in office, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu prevailed upon the Centre to extend a helping hand to Andhra Pradesh.
The CM was in the National Capital on Wednesday to meet President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnanth Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and BJP national president Amit Shah. He discussed political developments, implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act and promises that were made in the run up to State bifurcation.
“Further to bifurcation,” Mr. Naidu said, “AP needs special consideration and support in its developmental efforts. Unless there is a level playing field, we cannot compete with our neighbouring States.” Disclosing the details to media, Mr. Naidu said that the Centre, during the last one year, announced packages and incentives for the State. Two packages—Rs. 500 crore and Rs. 1,000 crore—were announced. Another package of Rs. 350 crore for backward regions, and 15 per cent additional depreciation incentive and etc. were also announced, he said.
The Centre, however, is yet to deliver on many other promises. Issues such as setting up premier institutes like AIIMS, Polavaram project and etc. also came up for discussion, he said. The CM said wide-ranging discussions were held on various urban development and Central housing schemes.
As per the norms, more areas in the State would be notified as urban areas to benefit from the Centre’s initiatives such as AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation), he said. Meanwhile, a delegation from Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China, met Mr. Naidu at Hyderabad on Tuesday to discuss possible areas of bilateral cooperation.
Chinese delegation
meets Naidu
The delegation led by Deputy Mayor Fu Yonglin called on Mr. Naidu in the wake of the latter's visit to China in March this year.
Mr. Yonglin said: “Trade exchanges betweenIndia and Chengdu in the last one year was USD one billion. Between January and March 2015 alone, the trade exchange has been pegged at USD 200 million,” an official release quoted him as saying.
