The promise of Special Category status, as outlined in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, helped Jagan win the 2019 Assembly elections.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Friday, 9 February, 2024. (Supplied)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said in a statement on Friday, 9 February, that he presented a slew of demands before Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting held in Delhi earlier in the day.
These included the demand for Special Category status to Andhra Pradesh, a promise on which he had ridden to power in the state in 2019.
Jagan’s Delhi visit came a mere two days after a similar sojourn by his political rival and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who had also come to power in a bifurcated Andhra Pradesh in 2014 on the promise that he would get special status for the state.
With the Lok Sabha elections — and the simultaneous Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls — just months away, the visits appear to have political motives.
That is especially true for the TDP, which was once a part of the BJP-led NDA before Chandrababu Naidu walked out of it.
Currently, the regional party’s alliance partner, the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party, is trying to stitch together a TDP-JSP-BJP coalition in Andhra Pradesh.
In his statement on Friday, YS Jagan asked Modi to implement the guarantees, including special status, given to Andhra Pradesh at the time of its bifurcation.
He said that special status was necessary for the economic progress of the state, noting that it would not only attract investments but also create better employment opportunities.
He also noted that the Union Finance Department had agreed to lift the component-wise ceiling in the Polavaram project and to release ₹12,911 crore for the early completion of its first phase.
He said the completion of the first phase of Polavaram would actually cost around ₹17,144 crore, and the proposal for this was already pending with the Department of Hydropower.
Jagan said in his statement that he requested the prime minister that this get immediate approval.
He also noted that AP Genco supplied electricity to Telangana for three years from June 2014, generating dues of ₹7,230 crore, which are pending. He requested the prime minister to see that these were paid immediately.
https://t.co/BQZzm9ri6V pic.twitter.com/cwLQBtikcz
— CMO Andhra Pradesh (@AndhraPradeshCM) February 9, 2024
Jagan said in the statement that he also brought to the attention of the prime minister that 13 districts in the state had been divided into 26 districts.
He said 17 new medical colleges were being built in the state so that each district would have one medical college, and classes had already started in some colleges.
He asked Modi to provide adequate support and cooperation regarding the establishment of colleges, he said in the statement.
The chief minister is also said to have requested support for the 55-km six-lane road connecting the Bhogapuram, Bhimili, Rushikonda, and Visakhapatnam ports proposed to connect Visakhapatnam with the Bhogapuram International Airport.
He also requested the extension of the Visakhapatnam-Kurnool high-speed corridor to Bengaluru via Kadapa, and to ensure that this project was realised after due consideration had been completed.
He is also said to have asked that the Kadapa-Pulivendula-Mudigubba-Sathya Sai Prashanthi Nilayam-Hindupur new railway line be taken up as a part of this.
He said that this project would provide good connectivity to the backward Rayalaseema area.
Jagan is also said to have requested that the prime minister approve the Visakhapatnam Metro Rail project as soon as possible.
May 17, 2024
May 16, 2024
May 16, 2024
May 16, 2024
May 15, 2024
May 15, 2024
