Centre owes 38k cr to AP, opines Pawan panel

Hyderabad: The elaborate exercise of number crunching, done by the members of the joint fact-finding committee constituted by Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan is understood to have concluded that the Centre had to help Andhra Pradesh with a financial assistance of Rs. 38,000 crore.

The Jana Sena chief is preparing to release the report on Saturday. The joint fact-finding committee, which comprises former secretary in Union Home Ministry K Padmanabhaiah, former chief secretary of AP I Y R Krishna Rao, Lok Satta founder president Jayaprakash Narayan, former MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar among others, was tasked with studying what the Centre had offered and what it had delivered to the state after bifurcation in 2014.

Pawan Kalyan constituted the committee as he wanted an impartial assessment of how much the Centre owes to the state so that he could decide on what stand he could take. After making it clear to the members that he was not a proxy to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, he urged the committee members to sift grain from the chaff so that he would have a clear idea of the goal for which he would have to fight.

According to sources, Pawan Kalyn would be taking a stand against the Centre since the report of the committee is loaded heavily against the Centre though it would also find fault with Naidu for not taking right decision at the right time to increase heat on the NDA government . “Only after Pawan Kalyan convinced that he was not acting on behalf of Naidu that we have decided to take part in the exercise. I think he was honest,” said one member who did not want to be quoted.

At the moment, it appears that Pawan Kalyan is bent on fighting for justice for the state which is still bleeding from bifurcation wounds.  “Elections are still far way and we do not know whose presence in the fray would benefit whom,” the member said wondering if the general perception that presence of Pawan in the fray would lead to division of anti-incumbency vote.