Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday, and sought increased central assistance for the southern state, especially for rebuilding state capital Amaravati, the Polavaram Irrigation Project, and developing the state’s backward regions.
Naidu also discussed about the funds from the Central government for the recent floods to the State. He told him how Vijayawada city was inundated and how thousands of families were in the water for ten days. He explained the devastation and requested the prime minister to give funds.
The chief minister, who is on a two-day visit to the national capital termed his discussions with the prime minister as constructive. Naidu also sought central handholding for the state finances in the short-term, incentives for industrial development and additional allocation under the Scheme for Special Assistance to States for capital investment, targeting essential sectors such as roads, bridges, irrigation, and drinking water projects.
Naidu said the people of Andhra Pradesh have emphatically placed their trust in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and granted both leaders a significant mandate to fulfil their promises and commitments. Naidu told the PM that Andhra continues to grapple with the repercussions of the unscientific, unfair, and unjust bifurcation of 2014.
Naidu conveyed to the prime minister that Andhra’s growth has plummeted, revenue receipts have tapered, and liabilities peaked because of the unproductive expenditure and fiscal hara-kiri, marked by the exploitation of natural resources for personal use and no focus on the development of human resources, of the YSR Congress Party regime such as the Polavaram project and building Amaravati.
The chief minister told the prime minister that Andhra Pradesh is severely constrained by lack of financial resources. Committed expenses, including salaries, pensions and debt servicing, exceed the state’s revenue receipts, leaving no fiscal space for productive capital investment, Naidu told the prime minister.
Naidu said the previous government resorted to indiscriminate borrowings, marked by hypothecation of future excise revenues and pledging of government buildings, combined with large-scale diversion of funds, which resulted in a situation of high public expectation and acute scarcity of resources. There is no other way to face such challenge except by way of financial handholding by the central government, Naidu told the prime minister.
Chandrababu Naidu would meet Nitin Gadkari in the morning on Tuesday and Home Minister Amit Shah in the evening. He would also meet finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman on the day.
