Andhra Pradesh CM urges PM to resolve post-bifurcation issues

Amaravati, Dec 28: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and urged him to resolve several pending issues that remained unattended for the last eight years after bifurcation of the state.

The CM apprised him that several issues remained unsolved even after eight years of the bifurcation due to which the residual state of Andhra Pradesh is hampered a lot.

According to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), Jagan Mohan Reddy said that despite the special committee headed by the Union Finance Secretary holding several meetings and discussed the unsolved bifurcation issues and related assurances given by the Centre in Parliament, no progress has been made to resolve key issues.

He told the Prime Minister that a huge amount of Rs 32,625.25 crore including resource funding of Rs 18,330.45 crore for the fiscal 2014-15 and pension arrears payable to Andhra Pradesh has been pending and appealed to expedite it immediately.

The Chief Minister said that the Finance Ministry has been imposing a plethora of restrictions on the state government on its permitted borrowings while adjusting the loans made by the previous TDP regime which had borrowed beyond the limits.

The YSRCP government has been facing several restrictions now for the wrongs of the TDP regime, he said, stressing the need for the Prime Minister to intervene and do away with the restrictions. The Chief Minister made it clear that the state would suffer a lot financially if the restrictions continue unabated, especially at a time when the country is set to fight the new variant of the Covid pandemic.

He further said that no final decision has been made by the Centre on the estimated expenditure of the Polavaram Project despite the Technical Advisory Committee finalising the total project cost as Rs 55,548 crore. Apart from not reimbursing the Rs 2,937.92 crore spent by the state government on the project from its own revenues so far, the Centre has also wrongly chosen to treat the drinking water supply system separately from the project, he complained, saying such a decision has not been applied to any other irrigation project which has got national status.

Jagan Mohan Reddy also appealed to the Prime Minister to do away with the policy of treating the project cost component-wise as it is escalating the total project cost besides causing delay and difficulties in reimbursement of the bills.

He appealed to the PM to release Rs 10,485.38 crore immediately on ad-hoc basis to begin land acquisition and take up the works of relief and rehabilitation of families displaced in view of the efforts to increase the height of the dam to 41.15 metres.

The Chief Minister also requested the Prime Minister to take immediate steps to ensure that the Telangana government pays its dues of Rs 6,886 crore outstanding from the TS Discoms immediately to AP GENCO which is in dire straits.

Pointing out the flaws and the irrational points in the National Food Security Act, the Chief Minister said that AP is being put to huge financial losses because of the faulty Act. He said that the NITI Aayog also has agreed with this view and there is a need to correct it.

Because of the flaws in the Act, some 56 lakh eligible families in the state are foregoing the benefits under the PMGKAY, he pointed out saying the state government has spent Rs 5,527 crore so far. He sought allotment of 77,000 tonnes of ration rice to the state out of the 3 lakh tonnes of ration rice being stranded at the Centre every month.

He further asked the Prime Minister to grant 14 more medical colleges to the state as there are only 12 medical colleges now to cater to the medical needs of the people as there are now 26 districts after reorganization with each district having a population of 18 lakh.

He also appealed to the Prime Minister to allot mines to meet the iron ore requirement of the steel plant being built at Kadapa and extend all cooperation to the proposed 76.9 km long Metro Rail Project in Visakhapatnam for which DPR has been already submitted, besides fulfilling the promise of granting special status to the state as per the assurances given in the Parliament.

The Chief Minister assured the Prime Minister that the AP government is ready to face the emerging BF-7 Covid threat.