Facing tremendous pressure, from within and outside, on the grant of “special status” to Andhra Pradesh, the State Chief Minister and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday morning and insisted that a solution to the problem should be found before the end of the current Parliament session on August 12.
The Prime Minister reportedly told him that his government would ensure “justice” for the residual State of Andhra Pradesh.
In the course of his separate meetings with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, the Chief Minister argued that his State must be granted special status for a minimum of ten years. AP, he said, was more backward than Telangana.
Aid for AmaravatiIn his meeting with Mr. Modi, the TDP chief pressed for increasing the number of seats in the State assembly and a generous assistance for the planned new State capital in Amaravati.
The case of Mr. Naidu is that a definite commitment on special status was made by none other than the previous Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when the AP Reorganisation Bill was debated in Parliament. However, it had soon become evident that special status for Andhra Pradesh was not going to be easy. The State is not eligible for it under the norms endorsed by the National Development Council (NDC).
Friday was another uneasy day for Mr. Naidu, as a private member’s bill tabled by the Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha to further to amend the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act came up for discussion and consideration. What could have been a potentially embarrassing situation for the government and the TDP was averted when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley categorised it as a money bill which could be taken up only by the Lok Sabha.
Jairam angers TDPTelugu Desam MPs are livid with the Congress for raking up the issue, as it was the Congress which had promised special status to AP when it suggested bifurcation of the State.
On Wednesday night, when the Rajya Sabha was in the process of voting on the bill to amend the Constitution to pave the way for GST, TDP MP C.M. Ramesh became impatient with Jairam Ramesh who was talking about issues related to “clumsiness” of the bill.
A visibly agitated Mr. Ramesh, addressing Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien said: “Sir, we are facing the problem only because of ‘may be’ and ‘shall be’. We are still facing problems in implementation of the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act. Now, he is talking about ‘clumsy drafting.’ How was the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act drafted? Like ‘may be’ and ‘shall be,’ there are so many things.”
As the Deputy Chairman tried to pacify him, Mr. Ramesh said: “He was instrumental in drafting the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act.”
