Anantapur: Honour bifurcation promises made to AP
District judge Radha Krishna Krupa Sagar felicitating Cardiologist Dr P Chandrasekhar with the prestigious award "Certificate of Commitment" at cardiology department in Kurnool on Monday. Hospital superintendent Dr Narendranath Reddy is also seen.
Anantapur: Congress Forum for Rayalaseema Development (CIRD) Chairman Pothula Nagaraju has appealed to the Central government and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to work jointly in redeeming the promises made to the state and ensure that all provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act be implemented in toto.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Nagaraju said that the Prime Minister has invited the Chief Ministers of AP and Telangana states for a meeting on February 17 at New Delhi to sort out bottlenecks for implementing all provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act.
He regretted that even after lapse of 8 years after bifurcation of united AP, most provisions of the act are yet to be honoured and implemented by the Centre. The ruling NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not releasing funds for the backward districts as promised including to Anantapur district in a bid to gain political mileage in the next elections, Nagaraju maintained. Ironically the Centre withdrew the points of discussion in the agenda including the backward areas development fund and the Special Category Status issue from the purview of negotiations. It means that there is no scope for discussion on these subjects, he said. The Centre by removing crucial points of agenda has taken away the steam out of the discussions thus reducing the talks into a futile exercise.
From 2014-2019, the Centre was supposed to give a financial assistance of Rs 24,500 crore to the state. The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a financial package of Rs 5 lakh crores to AP for Polavaram project, educational institutions, Rayalaseema irrigation projects and for industrial projects.
He expressed confidence that the Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi will form the government in 2024 elections. When he becomes the prime minister, he would undo all the injustice meted out to the state and fulfill the promises made to the state. Nagaraju regretted that the Centre was supposed to release Rs 50 crore to the district but was not releasing even for 2 years.