Chandrababu Naidu demands clear stance from Centre on vows

Amaravati: Batting for special category status with renewed vigour, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu demanded an unambiguous reply in the present budget session of Parliament on delivering, apart from the status, fiscal and other commitments made in AP Sate Reorganisation Act, 2014.

In his two-and- a-half hours reply to the debate on motion of thanks to Governor's address in the AP Assembly on Wednesday, Naidu traced the chequered history of the truncated state of Andhra Pradesh and how he had toiled to build it brick by brick. "Special category status is our right and there will be no compromise on it," Naidu declared.

Naidu, while taking the BJP to task for its broken promises, gave a graphic picture of how he has been navigating the state through choppy seas and after four years he was now heart-broken to see that the help that had been promised in abundance in 2014 came only in fits and starts.

Towards the end of his address, Naidu broke down saying that the BJP had shattered his dreams of building a new Andhra Pradesh and reiterated that help or no help, he always was on the side of the people and would continue to be so.

At times he blew hot and at times, he blew cold as he continued building a strong case against the Centre for the ills of the state. He however said he had succeeded to a large extent in kindling growth in all sectors and if only the Centre had chipped in, the situation would have been much more different now.

On several occasions, he expressed his deep anguish over denial of special status and wondered how the Centre could call this attitude cooperative federalism. "The Centre should help AP which is still nursing wounds of bifurcation with liberal assistance. It should not fan the flames of discontent with its unhelpful attitude," Naidu said.

The Chief Minister asked the Centre why it had not honoured the promise made in Parliament that SCS would be granted to the state. "This delay has given strength to Congress president Rahul Gandhi to say that as soon as the Congress comes to power in the Centre, the first file that would be signed would the one related to SCS," he said and asked the BJP why it had allowed the situation spin out of control in this fashion.

Stating that SCS was a matter of self-respect of Andhra people and the Centre should fulfil the assurances made during state bifurcation, he said the TDP had struck alliance with the BJP only for the development of state. “Modi had said that BJP would have done justice to Telugu states if it had been in power at the time of bifurcation. Now I am reminding him that since he was in power now, let him keep his word," he said.

The Chief Minister wanted to know when the Centre extended special status benefits in the name of budgetary support to North Eastern states, why it had failed to extend the same to AP. "I have been nice to the Centre. I never asked for berths in the central Cabinet or Governor posts.

Though I am the senior-most leader in the entire country now, I had never allowed the feeling get into my head. I met leaders in the Union government several times who are juniors to me, all because I wanted to benefit the state,” he said.

Condemning the campaign that the Central government has been delaying release of funds as the state government failed to submit utilisation certificates, the Chief Minister said that the state government submitted all accounts. He explained in detail the funds released by the Centre to various projects and institutions.