BJP Deceived AP More Than Congress: Naidu

Lashing out at the Centre, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the people of his state were convinced that the BJP had deceived them even more than the Congress.

Speaking to the media at Amaravathi on Saturday, Naidu said that when his government was asking about the assurances mentioned in the A P Bifurcation Act, instead of fulfilling them, the BJP leaders were busy addressing random letters to the state to divert attention. The Centre was not even inclined to conduct a review meeting on the bifurcation assurances, he remarked.

Naidu pointed out that the Centre was giving as share to the state the taxes paid by its own people, but trying to make it look like largesse. He said that the Centre had given only Rs. 576 crores for the central educational institutions located in the state when the need was actually Rs. 11,672 crores. Elaborating, he said that the state government had allocated Rs. 11,584 crores worth of lands to those central institutions, and that the Centre did not pay for the lands.

The state government had also allocated thousands of crores of rupees for the development of the airports, he claimed.

Naidu accused the Centre of mortgaging the self-respect of the Telugu people by reneging on Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh. The Centre felt no responsibility to the state, he alleged, and demanded that the Centre immediately give all the subsidies that would come with Special Category Status.