Centre gave only a fraction of `1.45L cr sought: Chandrababu Naidu

Visakhapatnam: For the first time, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu broke silence on the anomalies in the statistics being quoted by the Centre regarding the financial help to Andhra Pradesh.

While addressing a massive public meeting at Gudivada village under S Rayavaram mandal in the district on Tuesday, Naidu explained to the people that after the bifurcation, the residual state of AP needed Rs 1.45 lakh crore for its development.

“The state government had submitted a report to the 14th Finance Commission seeking Rs.1.45 lakh crore and the commission too agreed that the state required the amount. However, the BJP government has given only Rs.22,500 crore to the state in the past four years and still the state needs Rs.1.22 lakh crore,” Naidu said.

Referring to 2014-15 revenue deficit, the Chief Minister said the deficit was assessed at Rs.16,000 crore. But the NDA government at the Centre reimbursed only Rs 4,000 crore, sitting on the remaining Rs.12,000 crore, he added. 

Naidu said currently the BJP government has stopped all sorts of funding to the state. “In fact, there are no funds to develop the Visakha-Chennai Industrial Corridor.

The state government has been struggling to complete the Polavaram irrigation project and completed 57 per cent of works so far. If the BJP government provides funds as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act-2014, Andhra Pradesh will be developed further,” the Chief Minister said.