TDP MPs to stage protest in Anantapur tomorrow

Amaravati: The third protest meeting of the TDP MPs is going to take place in Anantapur in Rayalaseema on Wednesday. This is part of the total four protest meetings planned by the party MPs in the State against the Central government and BJP’s indifferent attitude towards the residual State of AP.

Here the TDP will demand the Central government grants for the backward districts in the State as mandated in the AP Reorganisation Act. In addition to that, the party MPs will also demand the Special Category Status (SCS) to AP and 100 per cent funds for construction of Polavaram Irrigation Project on River Godavari.

It is worth to mention here that, the party MPs have been fighting against the Central government demanding implementation of promises made under the Reorganisation Act as well as the promises made by former Prime Minister Manhmohan Singh, and by Narendra Modi as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate in 2014.

The TDP MPs already organised two protest meetings, first at Kadapa (demanding Kadapa Steel Plant - Rajya Sabha member C M Ramesh indefinite hunger strike), the second one at Visakhapatnam (demanding exclusive railway zone for AP in Vizag).

The fourth meeting will be organised at Amaravati demanding financial assistance to the AP government for construction of the capital city. 
The Central government gave Rs 350 crore for seven backward districts in the State for first three years, when the terms and conditions were good between TDP and BJP in the NDA alliance.

As the honeymoon ended between the two parties, the Centre started harassing the State government by raising all technical and administrative loopholes in the system, observed an IAS officer at Secretariat, under anonymous condition.

Though the NDA government released Rs 350 crore for this financial year, as per their commitment, they withdrew the fund again through Reserve Bank of India. This raised more doubts and concerns about the grants to be released by the Centre to AP.

TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu has been repeatedly demanding that the Central government should provide assistance to the seven backward districts and sanction grants like the Bundelkhand package. He has been raising the demand for a long time.