Chandrababu Naidu’s missive questions Narendra Modi’s visit

Amaravati: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday shot off an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning as to how he can visit the state without fulfilling the assurances given while bifurcating the state and repeatedly cheating the people of Andhra Pradesh.

Referring to the announcement pertaining to railway zone, Naidu said the Union Minister for Railways Piyush Goel announced South Coast railway and claimed that a long-pending demand has been fulfilled.

But abolishing 172-year-old Waltair division would result in a revenue loss of Rs 6,500 crore. This amounts to vindictive act on the part of the Centre. He said that the central government for narrow political considerations seems to have once again cheated the state by diverting the freight revenue to the Rayagada division and including the meagre passenger revenue to South Coast zone. 

The Centre should have understood that it had once again hurt the sentiments of the people of the North Andhra region. The Chief Minister said the Prime Minister announced Rs 1,000 crore towards victims of Hudhud cyclone four years ago but was yet to release Rs 360 crore. The Prime Minister failed to visit Srikakulam and Vizianagaram when it was hit by Titli cyclone.

Naidu said Modi should also first explain why the Centre did not accord special category status.  Why it failed to release Rs 4,063 crore spent by AP government towards Polavaram project so far even after submitting Detailed Project Report II. He should also explain why it released only Rs 3,979 crore when the revenue deficit was Rs 16,000 crore and why it gave only Rs 15,000 crore for construction of capital city. 

The chief minister posed 17 questions to Modi and sought explanation as to why the Centre failed to fulfil them. Among other issues raised by Naidu are:  Why the central govt failed to extend cooperation for international flight operations from Vijayawada and Tirupati though the state govt allotted hundreds of acres for expansion of airports.

Why the central government failed to increase the assembly constitutions to 225 from the existing 175 so far. Why the Centre failed to take a decision on setting up of Greyhounds training centre in AP?  Why it did not extend cooperation for division of properties between AP and Telangana under Schedule 9 and 10? Naidu said there was no point in PM visiting Visakhapatnam without giving a clarification on all these issues.