‘Only BJP can develop Seemandhra’

Vijayawada: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign committee convener Daggubati Purandeswari on Saturday asserted that only BJP has the vision to develop the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking at a meet-the-press programme, organized by the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) here, the former Union Minister said that special category status, tax and other financial incentives and the merger of 7 mandals of Polavaram Project area were all promised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Rajya Sabha only because of the intervention of the BJP.

She said that the NDA government, headed by the BJP, would honour all its poll promises. She claimed that the bifurcation had made the residuary AP a new State, while leaving the capital to Telangana.

“Several new States were created after Independence. But, it is for the first time that the residuary State is made a new State which would have to develop its own capital city and other infrastructure,” she said. She claimed that the Congress had decided to bifurcate the State and went ahead with a commitment ignoring the sentiments and well-being of the people of Seemandhra region. She wondered why the Congress did not have same commitment to get the women reservation bill passed in the Parliament.

She said she had noticed several lapses in the bifurcation bill and had raised them to protect the interests of the residuary State. However, the Congress leadership did not respond to her requests, she said and adding that the Congress promised all her concerns only when the same were raised by the BJP leadership.

These promises would be made a reality only with the BJP coming to power at the Center, she said.

She said that the country was facing current account deficit and it has to be addressed on a priority basis to take the country’s economy forward.