Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday and invited him to launch the State government’s flagship scheme YSR Rythu Bharosa in Nellore on October 15.
The Chief Minister also sought the Central government’s cooperation in sorting out the issues arising from bifurcation of the unified State of Andhra Pradesh.
Mr. Jagan told Mr. Modi that the State required a grant-in-aid of approximately ₹61,072 crore, but the Centre had so far released only ₹6,740 crore, while various bills amounting to nearly ₹50,000 crore were pending clearance.
He reiterated that the Centre was obliged to accord Special Category Status (SCS) on the lines of what was given to the northeastern States to give a boost to the industrial and service sectors keeping the fall in per capita income from ₹1.46 lakh to ₹1.29 lakh and other economic parameters in view.
He pointed out that the Centre was due to release ₹18,970 crore towards bridging the revenue deficit. The deficit was ₹22,948 crore at the time of bifurcation (2014-15) and the Centre had given only ₹3,979 crore.
The Chief Minister asked for approval of Polavaram project’s revised cost estimate of ₹55,548 crore and sought reimbursement of ₹5,103 crore spent on it by the State government.
A sum of ₹16,000 crore was immediately needed to expedite the project.
Reverse tenders
Mr. Jagan informed the Prime Minister that the State government saved ₹838 crore in Polavaram project (₹780 crore in the head works and hydro power plant and ₹58 crore in tunnel works) through reverse tenders.
