Sonia Gandhi urges Modi to grant special category status to Seemandhra

New Delhi: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to implement the commitments made by the previous Congress-led government to Seemandhra region, which include grant of special category status to it and execution of Polavaram multi-purpose irrigation project.

She said the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, by which Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh, contains various investment and other commitments by the government of India to the Seemandhra region.

The Congress president promised all cooperation to the Modi government in implementing these commitments.

“....The groundwork for many of them, like in the area of water resources, grant of special category status and facilitating the Polavaram project had already been laid by the erstwhile UPA government. I do hope that your administration will build on what we had accomplished and take them forward,” Ms. Gandhi said in the letter dated on Monday.

She noted that the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had also made certain further commitments on the floor of the Rajya Sabha on February 20, 2014 on which the Union Cabinet had taken certain decisions.

In the letter, she also attached a note giving details of the commitments made by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

“As president of Indian National Congress whose coalition government drafted the Reorganisation Act and got it passed through parliament, I assure you of our cooperation in ensuring that the commitments made to the people of the successor state of Andhra Pradesh are fulfilled both in letter and spirit,” Ms. Gandhi added.