Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on July 4 for the first time after taking the reins of power in Andhra Pradesh. The duo discussed a host of issues, including the support which the Andhra Pradesh Government is seeking from the Centre for development.
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Mr. Naidu sought the Central Government’s hand-holding of the State finances in the short term, support in commissioning the Polavaram project, comprehensive financial assistance for the construction of the government complex and trunk infrastructure in the capital city of Amaravati, incentives for industrial development, consideration of an additional allocation under the Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment and support to the backward regions of the State on the lines of the Bundelkhand package and the development of the Dugarajapatnam port.
The Chief Minister highlighted the fact that Andhra Pradesh continues to grapple with the repercussions of the unscientific and unjust bifurcation of 2014, and the miserable governance of the previous administration that was marked by malice and corruption. The mis-governance in the last five years dealt a more deleterious blow to the State than bifurcation itself, he observed.
Further, Mr. Naidu told the Prime Minister that the fiscal position of Andhra Pradesh had significantly deteriorated due to the previous government’s misadventures and absence of a strategic long-term development plan.
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He pointed out that the State was severely constrained by lack of financial resources while the committed expenses, including salaries, pensions and debt servicing, exceeded the State’s revenue receipts, thereby leaving no fiscal space for productive capital investment.
The situation reached such an impasse due to gross mismanagement of State finances by the previous government, and the indiscriminate borrowings made through hypothecation of future excise revenues and pledging of government buildings combined with large-scale diversion of monies resulted in acute scarcity of resources. Therefore, the Centre needed to hand-hold the State to face those challenges, Mr. Naidu asserted.
Mr. Naidu’s meeting with the Prime Minister assumed significance in the context of deliberations scheduled to be held by the former with his Telangana counterpart A. Revanth Reddy on July 6 to sort out the issues arising from the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
‘Constructive meeting’
In a message on ‘X’, Mr. Naidu stated that he had a constructive meeting with Mr. Modi and deliberated on important matters concerning welfare and development of the State. He expressed confidence that the State would re-emerge as a powerhouse under Mr. Modi’s leadership.
The Chief Minister also met Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and discussed the status of various national highway projects and resolved to take the State further on the road to progress and prosperity. Mr. Naidu had an interaction with Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal. On the occasion, he said the spirit of cooperative federalism would help the State in unlocking its full potential.
Union Ministers K. Rammohan Naidu, Pemmasani Chandrasekhar and Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma, Ministers Payyavula Keshav and B.C. Janardhan Reddy and Chief Secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad were among those present.
Published - July 05, 2024 12:15 am IST
