Rajnath assures early implementation

Appoints Additional Secretary AK Singh as nodal officer to look after the execution

Hyderabad: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday assured a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation from Andhra Pradesh that he would do the needful to speed up implementation of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 in its entirety.

He said steps would also be taken soon for helping the successor State of Andhra Pradesh in view of the problems being faced by the State after bifurcation. He also announced that Additional Secretary AK Singh would be the nodal officer who would look after the implementation of the act and would coordinate between the two Telugu speaking States.

According to sources, Venkaiah Naidu recounted the circumstances under which the State was bifurcated and made a strong point for assisting Andhra Pradesh. He said that the State was facing several problems having lost substantial revenue and resource base to Hyderabad and the new State of Telangana. Naidu urged Rajnath Singh to ensure that the Home Ministry, being the nodal Ministry for AP Reorganisation Act, should take a more proactive role in ensuring early implementation of the Act which would benefit both the States.

He further said that early decisions and actions were required in respect of special category status for AP, division of assets and liabilities between the two States, division of officers, proper re-allotment of Rajya Sabha members to both the States, execution of various projects as mentioned in the Act etc. Rajnath Singh also listened to the members of the delegation who insisted that special category status to Andhra Pradesh needed to be accorded on priority.

The Home Minister said that A K Singh would be visiting Hyderabad on Friday to hold discussions with both the Chief Secretaries to resolve the pending issues. In addition, the Union Home Minister agreed with the suggestion of Naidu that in certain cases pending issues could be resolved by using removal of difficulty orders in the AP Reorganisation Act and had directed the officers to expedite the matter in this regard also.

The Union Home Minister is also learnt to have assured the delegation that he would discuss the issue of special category status with Finance Minister Arun Jaitely. The Home Minister asserted that the Central government was committed to help both the States. Non-inclusion of special category status for Andhra Pradesh in the Reorganisation Act by the then UPA government, subsequent demands for similar status and Congress leaders speaking in different voices in this regard also came in for discussion during the meeting.

The delegation pointed out to the Union Home Minister that the Congress was resorting to cheap tactics and was carrying out a false propaganda. The BJP delegation comprised of Ministers Dr Kamineni Srinivas, Manikyala Rao, G Ganga Raju MP, Challapalle Narasimha Reddy, Bhanu Prakash Reddy, Santha Reddy, Ram Bhoopala Reddy, Vishnuvardhan Reddy, Parthasarathi, K Satyanarayana Raju MLC, Ramakrishna Reddy, Ankal Reddy, Ramesh Naidu, NT Chowdary, Uma and Sunil Isaka.