MP CLEARS AIR ON SPECIAL CATEGORY STATUS

Rajya Sabha member G.V.L. Narasimha Rao has made it clear that Special Category Status is relevant only to Andhra Pradesh and hence it was deleted from the agenda for the tripartite meeting of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and the Centre on pending matters of bifurcation.

He told the media in Rajamahendravaram on Sunday that there was no intention to “first include it on the agenda and then remove it.”

“It has been deleted as it is not a joint issue between AP and Telangana. Had it remained on the agenda, new complications could have cropped up. Therefore, it was dropped,’’ he said.

Narasimha Rao said it was not correct to blow the issue out of proportion. Special Category Status is no longer in vogue now. The Union Government is compensating AP in many other ways and giving financial assistance on an unprecedented scale, he said.

“No other state is getting revenue-deficit funds from the central government. The Centre is paying more attention to developing AP, but the state government not been able to make use of these positives.” He said the Union Government is giving a `22,223 crore subsidy in the name of ration and a `30,000 crore subsidy for the PM Awas Yojana scheme etc. The Centre would develop 8,285 km of NH at a cost of `35,000 crore.

However, the state government is not able to pay its share for many of these schemes. The Centre sanctioned the Kotipalli-Narsapur Railway Line with a budget allocation of `2,120 crore.