Jagan meets Amit Shah, seeks funds, honour of vows

Vijayawada: AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy met Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday and made a fervent plea to grant a special category status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh, an official press release from the government said. Mr Reddy also reiterated his plea for an early implementation of all provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, the release claimed.

Mr Reddy is also claimed to have told Mr Shah that the AP government had saved Rs 830 crore by opting in for reverse tendering of Polavaram project works, despite a series of Central government advisories against it.

The meeting with Mr Shah, however, transpired a day after Mr Reddy had gone to the national capital. Apparently, Mr Shah was preoccupied with elections underway in Maharashtra and Haryana, where voting was held on Monday. Afterwards, Mr Reddy, who was supposed to meet other union ministers, cancelled all appointments and rushed to Visakhapatnam.

The AP Chief Minister also requested for release of the revenue deficit assured in the Bifurcation Act, an amount of `18,969.26 crore. Mr Reddy also brought up the issue of approvals for the estimates of the Polavaram project and Central funds for backward districts as per the promises made during the bifurcation of the state.

Mr Reddy explained to Mr Shah that water levels of Krishna river had dropped to 456 tmc from 1,230 tmc in past 52 years. Making comparisons, he said that almost 2,780 tmc of Godavari waters had been diverted into the ocean during the last three decades.

Mr Reddy exhorted the union government to issue orders to ensure that Godavari floodwater was supplied to Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam projects. This would go a long way in addressing water problems of Rayalaseema and the Krishna delta regions. “The bifurcation had adverse effects on the size of the state’s industrial and service sectors, whose combined share of the SGDP had reduced from 76.2 per cent to 68.2 per cent,” he said.