Jairam Ramesh hits back at Venkaih Naidu on special category status to Andhra Pradesh

HYDERABAD: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has accused Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu of "inventing new excuses" on according special category status to Andhra Pradesh (AP) and the Centre of engaging in "double-speak" on the issue.

The Rajya Sabha member and former Union Minister sought to hit back at Naidu, who recently demanded to know from the Congress as to why the provision was not included in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014.

"I will ask Venkaiah Naidu why the provision of special category status was not part of Reorganisation Bill of Uttar Pradesh in 2000. UP was reorganised into UP and Uttarakhand in 2000. Special category status was given to Uttarakhand in 2002. Why was it not part of the Bill?" he asked.

"These (according special category status to AP) are executive decisions. So, same principle that applied to (Atal Behari) Vajpayee (the then PM) is being applied to Manmohan Singh also. The Cabinet decided that special category status should be given to Andhra Pradesh. Venkaiah Naidu is trying to find excuses," Ramesh told PTI.

He said his "sympathies" are with Naidu because the latter was party to the decision (on giving this status to AP).

"He (Naidu) knew that Manmohan Singh was going to make the commitment on 20th February of 2014. But Venkaiah Naidu also knows that Narendra Modi has gone back on the commitment. He is trying to invent new excuses," the Congress leader alleged.