CM rebuts Modi's charges

Says don’t belittle AP, we are ahead of Gujarat in all respects

Whether it is skill development, public distribution, farm and housing loans AP is far better than Gujarat

Hyderabad: Stung by the speech made by the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday at L B Stadium wherein he asked the state government to follow at least the Tamil Nadu model of development if not Gujarat model, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy strongly condemned Modi’s comments. At a hurriedly convened press conference at camp office on Monday evening, Kiran Reddy gave a strong rebuttal to Modi’s accusations.

He said Modi who was aspiring to be the prime minister of the country should not indulge in making wrong statements. He should know that Andhra Pradesh was a different state where his attempts to provoke people on caste or communal lines would never succeed. The Chief Minister said Modi during his speech on Sunday tried to belittle the state saying that it was backward compared to Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Chattisgarh. Kiran said, "it is unfortunate that Modi had tried to run down the state knowing well that Andhra Pradesh was far ahead of most of the states in the country in terms of implementing welfare measures and uplift of the poor, backward and downtrodden sections of the society".

While Gujarat gave only skill development for only 52,000 people and Tamil Nadu to 1.60 lakh youth (only skill development), in Andhra Pradesh 3.25 lakh people were provided skill development and employment. Andhra Government had earmarked Rs 415 crore for skill development last year and this year it had targeted another 3.50 lakh youth to be trained in various trades. He said when a team of officers from here visited Gujarat, Modi sought full details from them and commented that Gujarat needs to learn a lot from Andhra Pradesh.

Kiran said as far as public distribution was concerned, the coverage here was 94 per cent while it was 30 per cent in Gujarat and 63 per cent in Chhattisgarh. While rice is supplied at Re 1 a kg here, Gujarat has differential price system. The Bangaru Talli scheme which had become an act here was far better than what Madhya Pradesh or any other state was implementing, Kiran said.

In terms of pensions, Gujarat spent only Rs 98 crore last year while here Rs 2400 crore was allocated. Similarly the functioning of Self Help Groups is also much better than other states. While Andhra Pradesh gives farm loans at 3 per cent interest, in Gujarat they charge 7 per cent. The Chief Minister said even in housing schemes, Andhra was far ahead of Gujarat. The Mee Seva scheme which had seen 2.50 crore transactions did not exist in Gujarat, he added.

Replying to a question, the Chief Minister said even in terms of investments, Andhra Pradesh had been at second position during last three years unlike Gujarat which was at number 3 position. When asked about Food Security Bill, Kiran said it would put an additional burden of Rs 2300 crore on the exchequer and the common man would get one kg more rice. This would be more beneficial for northern states where public distribution system was not so good, Kiran said.

The chief minister refused to talk anything about the ongoing agitation in Seemandhra region. He said discussions were going on at Central level and hence the issue should be left at that stage and wait for the outcome.

CM back in Secretariat
After a gap of two weeks, Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday attended to his official duties at the Secretariat. Reddy has been staying away from secretariat since the Congress announced its decision to bifurcate the state on July 30