Speakers slam Centre for meagre allocations
Expressing their disappointment, senior citizens, former government officials, industrialists, IT players and others said that the BJP led NDA government was giving a step-motherly treatment to Andhra Pradesh by not implementing the assurances listed in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill-2014.
Visakhapatnam: Expressing their disappointment, senior citizens, former government officials, industrialists, IT players and others said that the BJP led NDA government was giving a step-motherly treatment to Andhra Pradesh by not implementing the assurances listed in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill-2014.
The BJP led NDA government has been cheating the people of the state for the past four years. While presenting the last full-term budget now, the Centre did not render justice to the truncated State of Andhra Pradesh, the speakers opined at a round-table meeting on the Centre Budget 2018-19 – impact on Andhra Pradesh and north Andhra region held on Tuesday.
Speaking at the meeting, former Union Secretary EAS Sarma pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on silly technical grounds, denied special category status, a railway zone and other assurances listed in the APR Bill-2014 to the state. Moreover, despite the fact that the state government demanded Rs 200 crore for development works in each district, the Centre sanctioned only Rs 50 crore, which amounts to cheating the people of Andhra Pradesh, he lamented.
Former Vice-Chancellor KV Ramana alleged that the BJP government cleverly took the people of north Andhra region for a ride. During the past four years, the Centre has released Rs 136 crore to Visakhapatnam, Rs 116.77 crore to Vizianagaram and Rs 150 crore only to Srikakulam. With such meagre amounts, how would the backward districts develop, he wondered.
General Secretary, North Andhra Development Forum A Ajaya Sharma said that since 2014, there is no single development work in the region. After the bifurcation of the State, the region was grossly neglected by the governments. He demanded the Centre to announce a new railway zone with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters without any delay.
CEO of Symbiosis Technologies and Chairman of Visakhapatnam Development Forum O Naresh Kumar, People for India convener BB Ganesh, S Ramanachalam and Karunakar also spoke.
