BJP floor leader in the Assembly, P. Vishnu Kumar Raju has demanded the appointment of an exclusive Governor for Andhra Pradesh, in place of E.S.L. Narasimhan, who was ‘unable to do justice to AP’ as the joint Governor for A.P. and Telangana. Interacting with the media here on Wednesday, Mr. Raju said the Non Agricultural Land Assessment (NALA) Tax reduction proposal, which was approved both by the Assembly and the Legislative Council, was kept pending by the Governor.
He alleged that Mr. Narasimhan, who does not stay in A.P., has ‘no affection’ towards the State.
On January 5, 2016, the Telangana government issued a G.O. reducing the NALA tax from 9 % to 3% in rural areas and from 5% to 2 % in the GHMC area to which the Governor gave his assent.
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Since 2006, the government has been increasing land rates every year and as a result, there was not much of a difference between the ‘market rate’ and ‘government rate’ in many areas and in some areas, the government rate was more than the market rate.
Mr. Raju, who represents Visakhapatnam North, said: “I had raised the issue with the Chief Minister and he appointed a Group of Ministers to look into it. It was approved after two rounds of discussions in the Cabinet and sent to the Governor for his approval. He kept it pending for a month and sent it back and I was given to understand that he wanted it come in the regular route.”
“After the approval of the Assembly and the Council, it was again sent to the Governor on December 4, but there has been no action so far. I came to know that the Governor has once again sent it back seeking a clarification,” he said.
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“All this indicates his lack of affection towards AP and his acts are detrimental to development of business in the State,” the MLA said.