Excelsior Correspondent
VIJAYAWADA (AP), May 30: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had quit NDA for domestic political compulsions.
Addressing a press conference here, he explained that the TDP was very comfortable with NDA occupying two ministerial berths in the Union Government till recently when it sensed stiff competition from other regional parties and started looking for excuses to walk out of NDA so that it could make all kinds of accusations against BJP in the hope of political mileage on the eve of the Assembly election.
Dismissing CM Chandr-ababu Naidu’s allegation that the TDP quit NDA because of non-acceptance of the demand for “special status”, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has repeatedly reiterated that the Centre will provide all kinds of support, financial and otherwise, which is available to “special status” category States like Jammu & Kashmir. “There was no reason to dispute this offer by the State Government, but the Chief Minister wanted to sell the slogan of `special status’ to hoodwink the innocent masses on the eve of State Assembly election,” he alleged and added that the voter was much more awakened than before and convinced that the Centre was always willing to offer all kinds of financial assistance to Andhra Pradesh, regardless of whether the ruling party in the State is a part of the NDA or not.
Citing figures and statistics, the Union Minister said, the Modi Government had provided Rs. 2,25,000 cr financial assistance to Andhra Pradesh. Not only this, for the Polavaram Projects, Centre provided 100 percent financial assistance and even offered to take over the project, but the State Government was keen to retain it. For development of National Highways in Andhra Pradesh, he said, the Modi Government allocated Rs 64,000 crore, while for Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Rs.32,500 crore was allocated. In addition, the Central Government provided an amount of Rs 22,000 crore to the State towards compensation for Deficit Budget for a period of five years. He said, another Rs 3,300 crore had been allocated for setting up a Naval Airbase in Bobbili.
Maintaining that Andhra Pradesh received maximum benefit of all the Central schemes initiated by the Modi Government, Dr Jitendra Singh further informed that under “Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana”, 1,93,142 houses had been undertaken for construction in the State. In addition, an IIIT, NIT, IIM, AIIMS, Petroleum University, Maritime University, and National Institute of Oceanography & Technology have been set up in the State by the Centre, he added.
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