Congress to submit memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee, PM Narendra Modi for special status to Andhra Pradesh

VISAKHAPATNAM: Congress leaders from Andhra Pradesh would submit a memorandum with one crore signatures to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking special category status for the state, a senior leader today said.

AP unit of the Congress had launched a campaign to collect one crore signatures around a year back to put pressure on the BJP government in favour of the special category status to the state, Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member T Subbarami Reddy said here.

AP Congress would organise 'Chalo Delhi' on March 12. Top leaders like Pradesh Congress Committee chief N Raghuveera Reddy and hundreds of workers will reach Delhi and submit the memorandum to the President and Prime Minister on March 14 as BJP has failed to protect the interests of the state as per the AP Reorganisation Act (APSR)-2014, he said.

Reddy and Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao also alleged that state Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has remained "silent" over BJP's apathy towards AP.

As per the APSR Act, the Polovaram project should have received a Central assistance of Rs 10,000 crore and AP was to get Railway Zone with Vizag as headquarters. But nothing happened in the latest budgets and (Chandrababu) Naidu has "utterly failed" to get funds for the state from his alliance BJP, the leaders said.