JFFC makes 15 suggestions

Hyderabad: The Joint Fact-Finding Committee (JFC) formed following the initiative taken by Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief Pawan Kalyan has made a total of 15 recommendations. JSP chief Pawan Kalyan along with the JFC members, including former Union Home Secretary Padmanabhaiah, Lok Satta founder Jayaprakash Narayan, former Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh IYR Krishna Rao, former MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar and retired IAS officer T Chandrasekhar addressed the media here on Saturday.

1. To be forwarded to Prime Minister Modi
2. The Committee has come to a conclusion that there is no substitute to the Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh
3. Lok Satta chief Jayaprakash Narayan says the Centre has to give Rs 74,450 crore to Andhra Pradesh pertaining to seven counts

Pawan said that the JFC findings will be sent to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to highlight the issues which need immediate attention of the Centre. The Committee has come to conclusion that there is no alternative to the Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh. Jayaprakash Narayan said the Centre has to give Rs 74,450 crore to Andhra Pradesh pertaining to seven counts.

He said committee made it clear that the two grounds cited by the Centre to reject the SCS to AP were not tenable. Because, neither the 14th Finance Commission had made any recommendation to abolish SCS, nor the decision of a non-statutory NITI Aayog can overrule the decision of the Union Cabinet, it said. Also, the Centre’s claim of SCS has become irrelevant is not tenable as the SCS category has been extended to the North-Eastern States along with Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Committee member Jayaprakash Narayan has given out details of several benefits that come along with the SCS and infrastructure support like growth centres scheme, integrated infrastructure development centres, integrated textile parks and mega food parks. Padmanabaiah said that AP is the only state in the country other than the SCS states saddled with revenue deficit at least every year from 2015-2020. The division of the erstwhile state has rendered AP as a non-viable state. As such, there is every justification to honour the solemn assurance made earlier to treat AP as a SCS state.

Further, the Government of AP agreed to a suggestion of the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to accept a special package of assistance. A figure of Rs 16,447 crore in respect of Centrally-sponsored schemes component alone had been agreed. However, the subsequent experience of the state has been dismal as not a pie has been released by the Centre till now even to the extent of enhancing Union Government’s share in Centrally-sponsored schemes.

Under these circumstances, JFC has no alternative but to press for extending all benefits under the SCS as a mere grant of Rs 16,477 is no substitute, it said. Similarly, the committee found fault with the Centre rejecting to compensate the revenue deficit in case of the expenditure incurred on four counts by the State government.

It highlighted the importance of four road projects proposed by the State government to establish connectivity for its capital city Amravati with other parts of the state including Hyderabad. It also favoured the Vijayawada Metro Rail project and pointed out that both the State and the Centre are moving slowly on the issue of building infrastructure needed for the state capital.

Padmanabhaih said as per the AP Reorganisation Act, the tax arrears must be collected at the place of assessment, whereas the liabilities have to be discharged on the basis of population ratio of 58:42 between AP and TS respectively. This has resulted in a loss to AP as most of company headquarters are at Hyderabad andthe losses are quantified at Rs 3,820.36 crore.