Former MP Vundavalli Aruna Kumar on Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Central government to keep its promise of granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh and release advance amount of at least Rs.10,000 crore immediately.
Addressing his first media conference after the general elections, Mr. Aruna Kumar said the State was facing severe financial crisis and was not in a position to pay even salaries to the staff. The State’s ranking had gone down in terms of the GDP as also per capita income. It was the Central government’s responsibility to come to its rescue. . Referring to media reports on the Centre’s claims that there should be a consensus among the States for granting special category status he said it was not necessary. “The last Cabinet meeting of Manmohan Singh Government last year resolved that special status would be given to A.P. and the Planning Commission would be asked to take necessary steps in this direction,” he said.