Arun Jaitley should reply on Andhra issue, says TDP minister

NEW DELHI: Union Minister and Telugu Desam Party member YS Chowdary on Friday said finance minister Arun Jaitley should respond to the concerns raised by the MPs of Andhra Pradesh over the budgetary allocation.

Speaking in Lok Sabha, Chowdary, who is a minister of state in the ministry of science and technology and ministry of earth sciences, said several projects under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act like the Polavaram project, a steep plant at Kadapa district, and a separate railway zone for the state in Visakhapatnam have remained unaddressed."There should be respect of members and not the numbers. 

The finance minister should reply on this in 15 days ... this is my suggestion," he said even as the MPs of the TDP and the YSR Congress protested on the issue in the Well.

Chowdary added that if this does not happen in 15 days, then there should be allocation of at least two hours to discuss the issue.It is rare that a minister makes such a demand in the House.

Union parliamentary minister Ananth Kumar sought to assure Chowdary that the NDA government is very "sensitive" about the issues raised by the people of Andhra Pradesh."The finance minister is going to speak on both these issues during his reply," Kumar said.

The TDP has been putting pressure on its senior ally BJP and had complained that the Union Budget had nothing for Andhra Pradesh.