BJP accuses media, Opposition of misleading people

​Visakhapatnam: BJP national secretary and in-charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs Siddharth Nath Singh squarely blamed the Opposition parties and a section of media for misleading the public on the special category status to the State. Speaking to presspersons here on Wednesday, Singh said all the political parties including those belonging to Andhra Pradesh had accepted the provisions of 14th Finance Commission under which all the States would get 10 percent more devolution of funds and had to forgo special status.

• BJP national general secretary and in-charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs Siddharth Nath Singh reiterates that the Centre is adequately supporting the State; reels out statistics
• Proposes to launch a special campaign to refute the allegations against the party on the issue

Singh said that as per the recommendations of the 14th finance commission there was no provision for a special category status to any State and those 11 States already having the special tag had agreed to forego it in lieu of additional devolution of funds. The BJP government had inherited the Constitutional legacy from the Congress government which did not include the special category status in the AP Reorganisation Act or the 14th Finance Commission had it.

“We cannot change it in the Parliament due to insufficient numbers in Rajya Sabha. Everybody in the country should go by law of the land but not by rhetoric or mere words,” Singh said. Though there was no special category status mentioned in the Act, he said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was considering it as a special status state.

“It is also not mandatory as per the 14th Finance Commission to announce the special status, but under certain provisions the Centre had decided to fill the revenue deficit by giving around Rs 22, 112 crores to AP in the next four years of which Rs 7,000 crore have already been sanctioned,” he pointed out.

He said all the parties in the country had accepted the said proposals in the interest of strengthening the federal structure of the country.
Explaining the volume of the benefits, Singh said undivided Andhra Pradesh received had Rs 98,820 crore from the 13th Finance Commission while the residual Andhra Pradesh would be receiving Rs 2,06, 910 crores from the 14th Finance Commission.

Listing out the grants and financial assistance given to the State, the BJP AP in-charge said the Prime Minister had accepted the recommendations of Union Minister Uma Bharathi who had suggested 100 percent grants for completing Polavaram project. Under the national project, the Centre would provide 70 per cent funds while the State had to spend remaining 30 percent on project cost.

“The Centre has straight away saved Rs 5,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh due to Uma Bharati’s initiative,’’ Singh said. Among other things, he said an amount of Rs 6,400 crore was given as special assistance and the Union government had announced Rs 1.43 lakh crore for industrial projects and Rs 65,000 crore for roads.

Similarly, Rs 2,500 crore had been sanctioned for construction of new capital for a period of two years of which Rs 1850 crore had already been released. “AP is getting more than what it would have got under the special status. The Centre has been doing a lot to the State, but due to misinformation and lack of communication public is kept in the dark,” he said.

He said he would be meeting Y Sujana Choudhary next Monday and would formulate a joint communication strategy to inform the people on the Central assistance to the State and to explain that the alliance has been working good and healthy in the State. Similarly, panels have been formed at the different level in the State to expedite the Central projects by meeting the Ministers concerned and officials at regular intervals. Local MP K Haribabu, MLA P Vishnu Kumar Raju and city president M Nagendra were also present on the occasion.