Venkaiah Naidu justifies package

​Vijayawada: In an attempt to counter all his critics on the Special Category Status (SCS) and the special package given to the State, Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu here on Saturday, justified the package announced by the Central government. The Union Minister said that the package was several times better than SCS, which is being withdrawn to the existing States as directed by the 14th Finance Commission.

Venkaiah Naidu, who arrived in the city from Visakhapatnam, was taken in a motor rally from Gannavaram airport as thousands of students from various schools greeted him all along the route. Later, addressing an impressive gathering of the cross-section of people, the Union Minister said Rs 2.25 lakh crore special package announced by the Centre would change the fate of the State.

He said that he had always been in favour of separate State for the coastal districts with Rayalaseema and recalled his active role in the 1972 Jai Andhra agitation. He said that he had confidence in the abilities of the people of these districts, who have succeeded in various countries. “I know people of this region can do things better than anyone and can develop their State as a top State in the country. With the long coastline, the intellectual and industrious people around, the State would soon flourish,” he asserted.

Referring to the SCS demand that he had raised in Rajya Sabha at the time of bifurcation, Venkaiah said that he had studied the draft bill and found a lot of injustice being done to the State. He said that he had raised those issues with Manmohan Singh government which had sent Jairam Ramesh to him.

Venkaiah said that he held consultations for seven days on doing justice to Andhra Pradesh. It is for this reason several issues including the promise of Central institutions and Polavaram Project were included in the draft bill before it was passed in Lok Sabha and sent to Rajya Sabha, he added. “When the Bill was tabled in Rajya Sabha, I have raised the issues that were part of our consultation but were not part of the bill and SCS was one of the issues,” he recalled.

He said none of the Congress leaders in the Parliament from Andhra Pradesh raised issues seeking justice to the State and added that it was for that reason he had taken up the case. He found fault with the drafting of the bill where the Congress government did not make any commitment on any promises.

The bill says ‘shall examine the feasibility’ on several issues including railway zone and steel factory. The Congress never said ‘shall be established’ which are now being implemented by the government,” he asserted.