NDA govt lynching AP

​New Delhi: Continuing the TDP attack on the Centre over denial of the special category status to Andhra Pradesh, TDPP leader Y S Chowdary accused the BJP government of ‘lynching the aspirations and intentions of AP people by deceit’ here on Tuesday.

Initiating the short duration discussion on the issue, Chowdary castigated the BJP as anti-AP citing nine reasons for the Telugus ‘pain and anguish’.

They are:  Violations by the government of various provisions of the Constitution of India, neglect of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, wilful burial of the decision of the Union Cabinet in respect of special category status, calculated and motivated non-compliance with the assurances and promises made by the then Prime Minister on the floor of  the House, power hungry politics of the BJP, careful orchestration of misinformation campaign, dichotomy of the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, violation of the spirit of cooperative federalism, demonstrated failure of the Centre in implementing the Act. The BJP was 'lynching' AP's interests because it had found a new friend in the YSRCP, Chowdary added.

The Prime Minister during his election campaign, not once but thrice, had publicly assured the people of Andhra Pradesh at Guntur, Nellore and the temple town of Tirupati that AP would be given special category status, not for five years as promised by the Congress but for ten years.

The government did not seem to be having trust and confidence in the machinery and leadership of states. Bridging the revenue deficit for the 10-month period from the date of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh coming into being and till March, 2015 was a major case in point. The AP government while under presidential rule projected this deficit as Rs 16,078 crore. The CAG upheld this figure. But the Centre had reduced it to just Rs 4,117 crore, he added.

Asking the PMO whether it was its job to scrutinize the expenditure of the states, he sought to know what mandate it had. He also sought to know why SCS was being denied when the 14th Finance Commission (as has been pointed out by the Congress leadership repeatedly and the YSRCP too) did not say so specifically. Asking the BJP whether it wanted to play divisive politics and whether it was in the interest of AP and the country. Insisting that he was not seeking a charity or begging, Chowdary concluded that it was the right of AP that justice be done to the State at once and without further excuses.

The state government, with all responsibility and humility as a constituent of the Union of India, estimated a total resource requirement of about Rs 1.54 lakh crore for various aspects of development of the resource starved State. Contrary to the misleading claims of the government and the BJP, all that the state has received so far just Rs 13,708 crore during the past four years from the central government. It would take 44 years (at this rate) to develop the state, he warned. He also listed all other demands being raised by the State consistently all along.