Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh had expected the Union Budget this year to be unlike other budgets. The state has lined up a slew of infrastructure projects and a new capital to be built for which it had pinned hopes on getting commensurate financial assistance from the Centre this time. But a huge disappointment it got from the Union finance minister Arun Jaitely’s Budget on Thursday.
The TD is highly disappointed at the snub and in the mood to make its displeasure known to the Centre.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday expressed his unhappiness over the Budget allocations to the state. Soon after the Budget presentation, Naidu held a tele-conference with party MPs and instructed them to put pressure on the Central government in Parliament over the injustice done to Andhra Pradesh.
The state government had expected a lot from the Budget but the allocation was just for the Central and tribal universities, with the fund allocation for these also being very poor.
The Centre has allotted Rs 10 crore to each university. No funds were allotted to various national institutions set up in AP which are running out of private and temporary accommodations. More importantly, the Central government did not allot any funds for Metro Rail projects in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, when Bangalore Metro Rail project was allotted a massive Rs 17,000 crore.
No funds have been allotted for the construction of AP’s capital city Amaravati. The Central government is still to release Rs 1,000 crore balance funds to the state, but was not mentioned in the Budget. The Polavaram project is being financed through off-budget allocations. So in effect, the Central government did not allot any funds for Polavaram.
Besides, in the recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Naidu had specifically asked for sanction for the Duggirajupatnam port in Nellore district as assured in the AP Reorganisation Act. That too was ignored in the Budget.
Also, industrial corridors in some other states have been allotted funds, but AP’s Vizag-Chennai industrial corridor did not find favour in the Budget.
There was no mention either of the establishment of an integrated steel plant at Kadapa, the Grey Hounds training centre and many other initiatives that had given assurance of financial assistance in the AP Reorganisation Act.
In lieu of Special Status to AP, the Central government had announced special financial package but funds for it were not allotted in the Budget.
