Naidu Repeats Special Status Demand In NITI Aayog Meeting

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu today strongly put forth his points in the NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi alleging that the Centre had done gross injustice to the residual state.

Naidu, who came face to face with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first time after snapping his ties with the NDA, raised a host of issues, including the Centre's refusal to grant Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh. Naidu asked the Centre to fulfill all its promises made in the A P Reorganisation Act, including offering adequate funds to meet the revenue deficit, completing the Polavaram project, helping with acquisition of land for the project, rehabilitation of the displaced and offering funds for building the state capital Amaravathi.

While listing out his demands, Naidu said that his state was on the path of development on its own, but that the GST and demonetization decisions had affected it. The Centre had failed to resolve the problems that arose after the announcement of demonetization which had created an acute scarcity of currency, he alleged.

Each Chief Minister was allotted seven minutes to address the meeting, but Naidu continued his speech beyond 20 minutes, even after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh asked him to complete his speech as he had already crossed the time limit.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar supported the demand of Special Category Status of Chandrababu Naidu. He also wanted the same for Bihar. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Benarji, too, supported a demand of Chandrababu Naidu - to not take into consideration the 2011 census for tax devolvement.