Centre flayed for not releasing funds to AP

Vijayawada: Senior Congress leader and PCC vice-president N Tulasi Reddy came down heavily on the BJP and TDP for not releasing adequate grants to complete the national institutions, which were part of the AP Reorganisation Act. He said betrayal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inefficiency of Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu and opportunistic policies of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy are responsible for not granting the funds to the state.

He spoke to the media at the Andhra Ratna Bhavan on Monday. He said Andhra Pradesh suffered huge loss as it lost Hyderabad. He recalled that the UPA government enacted AP Reorganisation Act to sanction many prestigious institutions to the state to compensate the loss suffered by the state due to bifurcation. But the Central government failed to fulfill its promises and betrayed the people of AP. Tulasi Reddy said the Central government allotted only Rs.3,979 crore against the proposed amount of Rs.16,078 crore budget deficit.

He said the Union government allotted Rs.1,050 crore for the development of backward districts in North Andhra and Rayalaseema against Rs.24,350 crore to be allotted to the State during the last four years. For Polavaram project, the government has released only Rs.5,349 crore against the cost of Rs.54,000 crore, for capital construction only Rs.1,500 crore released so far against the proposed allocation of Rs.11,602 crore, Tulasi Reddy said.

For IIT Tirupati, the Union government released only Rs.100.93 crore against the project cost of Rs.3,150 crore and Rs.55.96 crore for IIM, Visakhapatnam, against Rs.691 crore. He said the Central government has released only Rs.60 crore for NIT, Tadepalligudem against the Rs.460.50 crore and Rs.23.10 crore for Kurnool IIIT against Rs.400 crore. Tulasi Reddy further said the Central government is yet to sanction tribal university, Dugarajapatnam port, steel plant in Kadapa and New Railway zone with headquarters in Vizag.