Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday said that the Centre would have given the Special Category Status (SCS) if it had been included in the A.P. Reorganisation Act and claimed that the State had got more money from the special package offered.
Addressing criticism that the Centre had failed to grant SCS, Mr. Naidu sought to turn the tables on the UPA government which, he said, had not included the SCS in the Act. He said he had then demanded in the Rajya Sabha that A.P. should get SCS for 10 years.
Mr. Naidu said the Centre would continue to hand-holding the State crippled by fiscal deficit. The Centre had already pledged to fill the revenue loss of Rs.22,000 crore. If the State failed to plug the revenue loss in five years, the Centre would help the State even for 10 years, he remarked.
“We will repay the loans taken from foreign banks and have already committed to completion of Polavaram project. We have released Rs.850 crore for Polavaram during the last two years. This project will be entirely executed by the State Government,’’ Mr. Naidu said.
Mr. Naidu also reiterated that the Centre had already committed to building roadways in the State at a cost of Rs.64,000 crore, developing the Visakha Steel Plant at a cost of Rs.38,000 crore in a phased manner and executing the Chennai-Kolkata corridor.
The highest priority had been given to A.P. in housing schemes. Of the 9.35 lakh sanctioned houses, A.P. had got 1.93 lakh houses, he added.
