BJP says no going back on T Bill

• To seek special package for backward areas in T
• It will also demand funds for certain projects

What it wants for Seemandhra

• Bear entire cost of developing new capital
• Special packages to backward areas
• A huge fund for overall development
• 10-year tax holiday to woo industrialists
• International airports at Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati

Hyderabad: A day after the violent incidents that rocked the Lok Sabha when the UPA government introduced the AP State Reorganisation Bill 2013, the BJP has held a sort of brain-storming meetings with senior party leaders on the stand it should take on the issue.

According to sources privy to these meetings, the party has decided that BJP does not want the Telangana headache during its regime. The party had assured its support for the formation of Telangana and if it backtracked at this stage it would be shown in very poor light. Hence, the BJP leadership decided to move some amendments to the Bill and pass it not only in Lok Sabha but also in Rajya Sabha.

The sources said that even the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, had made it clear on Friday that she was very much in favour of passing the Bill. She had reacted angrily on Thursday only because she was opposed to the manner in which the Bill was introduced, but unfortunately the media projected as if she was opposed to the Bill.

Sushma said her objection was mainly because when such a historical Bill was tabled, there should have been some people who could thump the desks in appreciation, but the mishandling of the Congress party in regard to floor management led to such a chaos in the House.

The party, according BJP leaders, will move some amendments, demanding that the Centre should bear the entire cost of developing the new capital, give special and attractive packages to the backward areas of Seemandhra region.

The BJP will also demand that the Centre declare in the Bill where a new capital for Seemandhra would be located. But at the same time, it will not suggest any place as it could lead to new controversy and problems within the party.

There are demands that the capital should be located at Vijayawada, Markapuram, Kurnool, Guntur etc and hence the BJP would not poke its nose into it, the central leadership was thus understood to have decided on Friday.

Among the other demands it would put forward in form of amendments is that Centre should have allocated a huge fund could be over Rs 2,000 crore towards development of Seemandhra region, 10-year tax holiday to woo industrialists for establishing their units and up gradation of Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati airports into international airports.

For T region, it will demand special package for backward areas and provide financial assistance for certain irrigation projects in the region. The party sources said that most of these demands have already been conveyed to the government when the AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh had a meeting with BJP senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu recently.

Asked what would be the stand of the BJP if the government does not accommodate their demands, the party leadership says that there is no going back on their promise of supporting the T Bill but at the same time they will ensure that equal justice is done to the Seemandhra region.