Chandrababu Naidu meets PM Modi, seeks Central govt's support for Andhra Pradesh

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday and sought liberal financial assistance to AP for “rebuilding” the state.

The meeting lasted half an hour, during which the CM explained to the PM the need for major financial support from the Centre to the state to enable AP tide over a difficult financial situation.

Naidu reposed confidence in the PM’s leadership of the nation. “In this historical election, the people of Andhra Pradesh have emphatically placed their trust in the NDA coalition government,” he said.

Naidu sought Modi’s support especially in handholding the state finances in the short term, as also in commissioning of the marquee Polavaram National Irrigation Project, in completion of the government complex and the trunk infrastructure of Amaravati.

He also sought incentives for industrial development, consideration of an additional allocation under the Special Assistance Scheme to states for capital investment, to promote essential sectors such as roads, bridges, irrigation and drinking water projects, support to the backward regions of AP on lines of the Bundelkhand package and for development of the Dugarajapatnam port.

The Chief Minister told the PM that Andhra Pradesh continued to grapple with the repercussions of the unscientific, unfair and unjust bifurcation of the state 2014. Additionally, he alleged that the YSRC rule was marked by malice, corruption and misgovernance.

Naidu brought the financial conditions of AP to the PM’s attention. The fiscal situation has significantly deteriorated due to the previous government's misadventures and absence of a strategic long-term development plan, he said.

“On account of unproductive expenditure and fiscal hara-kiri marked by exploitation of natural resources for personal use and due to a lack of focus on development of human resources, AP’s growth has plummeted, its revenue receipts have tapered and liabilities peaked.”

Naidu said committed expenses, including salaries, pensions and debt servicing exceeded the state's revenue receipts, leaving no fiscal space for productive capital investment. The situation has reached a critical situation due to “gross mismanagement of state finances by the previous government,” he alleged.

The Chief Minister lamented that “indiscriminate borrowing marked by hypothecation of future excise revenues and pledging of government buildings, combined with large-scale diversion of money resulted in a situation of high public expectation and acute scarcity of resources. “There is no other way to face such a challenge except by way of financial hand-holding of AP by the central government,” he said.