Centre gives peanuts to AP

Centre gives peanuts to AP
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Highlights

The Centre has released Rs 1,976 crore to Andhra Pradesh to meet its resource gap and as special funding of backward areas development and for capital development.

New Delhi: The Centre has released Rs 1,976 crore to Andhra Pradesh to meet its resource gap and as special funding of backward areas development and for capital development.

Disclosing this here on Thursday, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdary said out of this, Rs 1,176 crore is to meet the resource gap, Rs 350 crore for seven backward districts covering Rayalaseema & north coastal region and Rs 450 crore for capital city development.

Thus, with the current sanction of funds, the Central government has so far provided the assistance of Rs 8379.50 crore to Andhra Pradesh, which includes Rs 4403 crore released during 2014-15 and Rs 2000 crore released in 2015-16 in terms of the provisions under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

The Centre released the same to keep its word given in Parliament during the recent monsoon session when MPs from Andhra Pradesh protested and forced the government to debate on the issue of Special Category Status demand for AP.

The Centre is expected to announce a special package in place of the Special Category Status for AP to ward off criticism that it is putting its promises on the backburner.

It may be recalled that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has assured the Congress and TDP MPs agitating in Parliament that the Centre would not ignore AP's needs.

Continued on P6He said the hand-holding would continue till AP completely recovered from its financial crisis. He also promised that his Ministry would explore ways and means of extending funds to the State reasonably and from time to time.

On the other hand, NITI Aayog has already been asked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prepare a special financial package for AP in consultation with State government officials. This development took place after a meeting of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with the PM recently.

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