Government remains non-committal on special status for Andhra Pradesh

New Delhi: Notwithstanding demands by various parties, including ruling NDA ally TDP, the government on Friday remained non-committal on granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh but promised in Rajya Sabha to “hand-hold” the revenue-deficit state to enable it to progress on its own. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assured the House that the government is committed to keeping all its promises and will fulfill all its responsibilities as far as hand holding Andhra Pradesh was concerned. Jaitley was responding to a discussion on the ‘Status of implementation of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 and government assurances’ during which TDP and several other  parties pressed for grant of special category status to the state in the wake of carving out of Telangana state two years back. He said the special status promise was not in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 but was made by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the floor of the House and the government is now seeing what has to be done. However, he added, “For some period, Andhra Pradesh needs hand holding. The Centre will fulfill all the responsibilities it has towards hand holding Andhra to (help it) reach a level where it can be on its own.” Much to the surprise of the House, TDP leader and Minister YS Chowdary chipped in during Jaitley’s reply to seek a resolution by the House for time-bound implementation of the promises made by the previous central government. [caption id=“attachment_2923694” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament on Friday[/caption] This prompted Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien to quip that it is “very unusual” to see intervention of a Minister when another Minister is replying to a discussion. Interestingly, Chowdary held both BJP and Congress “equally responsible” for the “half baked, unscientific and undemocratic bill” which led to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. The TDP member reminded the House that both Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu had demanded special status for Andhra Pradesh to be extended to 10 years as against the five years promised by Manmohan Singh. He also praised the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for opposing the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in the 1970s, saying that it would not be good. The Finance Minister appeared to be explaining the difficulty in granting the special status while noting that special status means that 90 percent of the expenditure of schemes will be borne by the Centre as against 60 percent for normal states. The Union of India should not be left financially vulnerable, he said while contending that the country’s economy has been “adversely” affected by global prices, two years of drought, the 7th Pay Commission and OROP among other factors. Explaining the division of federal revenues, Jaitley pointed out that 42 percent of central revenues go to the states and the Centre is left with only 58 percent to take care of defence of the country, payment of salaries, running the government, running central schemes in states among others. “The size of the cake is limited, the size of the pie is limited,” Jaitley said. He said that under the new Finance Commission architecture, the divided state of Andhra Pradesh will get over Rs 2.06 lakh crore for the period 2015-20 as against Rs 64,575.30 crore that it wuld have otherwise got. Talking about the promises made in the 2014 Act, the Finance Minister said a number of them have already been fulfilled. He named these as setting up of IIT, NIT, IIM and IISc. He also cited in-principle approval of Vizag metro, coal blocks and Vijaywada airport as the fulfillment of the 13th schedule commitments. Jaitley repeatedly said Andhra Pradesh’s case is a developmental issue and one should not try and take political mileage out of it. He said the Centre has already given Rs 2,803 crore to Andhra Pradesh and both it and the state are working out the rest of the payment after studying the demand. “I have no hesitation in telling my colleagues in the House that this is not the last day nor the last payment,” he said. Jaitley said the Finance Commission has granted special status to hilly states and border districts but states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal would get more than what has been recommended under the new system. “What will happen to federalism if we reject the Finance Commission report? India is a shared sovereignty. Should we reject part of the Finance Commission report,” he asked while replying to questions raised by members. Meanwhile, Thota Seetharama Lakshmi of the TDP said Andhra Pradesh was asking for justice and not begging. “We are asking for what we rightly deserve,” she said. Naresh Gujral of SAD said the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh was a “cynical step” taken by a desperate Congress wanting to reap immediate political dividends. D Raja of CPI said people in Andhra are agitated but the central government is running away from the assurances given by the previous government. Responding to this, Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, “nobody is running away. Some solution has to be found.” CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, while cautioning that the issue could “inflame” and “ignite” passions, said a “conflict has arisen because of the assurance given here. How do we settle that? A way has to be found out. I urge the government to work out a mechanism to resolve this issue.”