JOIN USThe Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a key ally of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, is gearing up to confront the Centre over its continued silence on helping Andhra Pradesh build a new capital city and tide over financial crisis.
The TDP is also unhappy with the “raw deal” meted out to Andhra Pradesh in the central Budget, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has expressed his displeasure in unequivocal terms and attacked the Union government for not fulfilling the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act.
Naidu, along with other senior TDP leaders, will soon visit Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urge him to correct the “injustice” meted out to the state.
“I am shocked at the Budget allocations for residual AP. If promises made by the BJP are not kept, people will lose faith in Modi. Surprisingly, there are no allocations for the construction of the state’s new capital!” a disappointed chief minister said immediately after the Budget presentation.Despite several requests to the Centre to grant at least Rs 22,000 crore in the Budget for the capital city construction, no allocations were made, he rued. “I am deeply hurt, one can’t expect us to fly after breaking our wings,” he said.
Naidu had been seeking Rs 1 lakh crore to build a new state capital as it might take 15-20 years for it to reach Hyderabad’s level of development. Though Modi had time and again promised to help AP build a world class capital, not a single rupee was allocated in the Budget.
“The people of AP never wanted bifurcation. But they (Congress) did and paid a price. Narendra Modi made promises to Andhra Pradesh. That is why people voted for us. Now, the NDA is not doing justice,” Naidu said.
The chief minister pointed out that despite 42 per cent devolution under the new Finance Commission recommendations, and extra allocations, AP would still be a revenue-deficit state.