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AP’s hopes dashed No Special Status to any State: Centre
The Union Minister of State for Home, Rao Inderjit Singh, categorically reiterated in the Lok Sabha on Friday that the earlier practice of according Special Status to any State in the country was no more in vogue. All that the States could expect was perhaps a special package or assistance and not a Special Status.
New Delhi: The Union Minister of State for Home, Rao Inderjit Singh, categorically reiterated in the Lok Sabha on Friday that the earlier practice of according Special Status to any State in the country was no more in vogue. All that the States could expect was perhaps a special package or assistance and not a Special Status.
This assertion which comes as a blow to the ruling TDP in Andhra Pradesh which has been demanding the Special Status and has been telling people of the State that it would secure the Special Status "at the earliest", came as response to the questions raised in the Lok Sabha by MPs, Tathagath Satpathy of Odisha and C R Chowdhary of Rajasthan.
Both the members sought to know why a Special Status could not be accorded to their States as under the NITI Aayog dispensation their States were getting lesser funds. The Minister clarified that under the new scheme the States were getting 42 per cent share of the Direct Taxes instead of the 32 per cent being given earlier. If there are demands for special packages,it was also being considered on the need-base. But, Special Status was out, he said.
How much of a political storm this would lead to and whether this would widen the rift between the BJP and the TDP in Andhra Pradesh is to be seen. There are already rumblings that the BJP had backtracked on its own promise of the Special Status made during bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
It may be recalled that the BJP leadership then, including its Parliamentary Affairs Minister, M Venkaiah Naidu, have been assuring the people of Andhra Pradesh that Special Status was inevitable for the development of the State. AP Government and particularly, its Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, have been hopeful that the status would be accorded to the residual State of AP as it was deprived of even its Capital city.
Of late, politics centered on the Special Status are hotting up in AP with the Opposition including the YSRCP and the Congress raising it. Rahul Gandhi, the AICC vice-president, too broached upon the same during his recent Pada Yatra. The YSRCP president, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has announced his plans to hold a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on August 10, to bring pressure on the Centre on this count.
The TDP MPs too have held a dharna in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament the other day demanding Special Status to AP. The Centre, however, has been asserting earlier that the conditions for according Special Status do not apply to Andhra Pradesh. But today, it has totally ruled out the same to any State.
