Chandrababu Naidu dejected over Centre’s support to Andhra Pradesh in Union Budget 2015

HYDERABAD: Days after accusing the Finance Commission of deserting Andhra Pradesh by not bailing it out from damages suffered through state bifurcation, chief minister Chandrababu Naidu said he was “dejected, despaired and depressed” at meagre support of Centre in the Budget.

Interacting with the journalists at his camp office in Hyderabad on Saturday, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president Naidu said none of the major promises made by the BJP-TDP alliance found support in the budget presentation of NDA government. TDP shares power with BJP at both the Centre and in AP.

“We had lots of expectations on the union budget 2015-16 and hoped that the NDA government will announce measures towards fulfilling the promises the BJP-TDP alliance made,” said Naidu, adding that, “We are finding it difficult to condone that none of the key promises we made had any mention in the union budget on special category status, industrial incentives and significant financial assistance to capital city construction and Polavaram irrigation project.”

Referring to the paltry or no allocations to ambitious projects of AP like Greenfield capital city and Polavaram irrigation project in the budget, Naidu said, “Going by the paltry funds allocation, it may take decades for AP to complete such ambitious projects. If we don’t get funds to build growth engines and ecosystems to compete with neighbouring states of Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, we cannot achieve level playing field and cannot catch up with other states despite having enterprising and hardworking population.”

The TDP chief said he failed to ascertain the reasons on why the NDA government did not honour the promises the alliance partners BJP and TDP made to the people of Andhra. “I don’t know whether it an oversight or problems in briefings by the bureaucrats.”

Naidu insisted that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take the responsibility of fulfilling all the promises the alliance partners made to the people of Andhra, who trusted and elected them to form NDA government at the Centre. “During the election campaign, Narendra Modi had promised to help AP build a world class capital city better than Delhi. It is his duty to ensure level playing field so that AP, which suffered fiscal damages through iniquitous bifurcation, can catch up with other states.”

The AP chief minister said he would soon leave for Delhi to meet Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh to once again apprise them on the wretched conditions of his state and urge them bail it out. “Our wings were clipped. How do they expect us to fly and contribute to the national development?”

Naidu said honouring the poll promises and fulfilling the aspirations of AP people was the responsibility of the NDA government. “It is a matter of political decision to create a level playing field and I hope the Modi government will look into it soon.”