AP Special Category status rocks Rajya Sabha

Andhra Pradesh Special category status(SCS) discussion was triggered in Rajya Sabha by Congress with support from other parties. The upper house took up the discussion on convening National Development Council(NDC) and the concept of SCS.

Congress leader K V P Ramchandra Rao informed the house that Fourteenth Finance commission never endorsed going back on SCS to AP. He said that the commission members confirmed the same. He also demanded that the promises made in parliament should be fulfilled. Rapolu Ananda Bashkar supporting KVP’s arguments educated the upper house about the agitations in the state demanding status.

T Subbarami Reddy said AP did not have a capital during reorganization and requested not to link SCS with other aspects. He insisted that NDA should apologize for bungling and immediately grant status to the state. Minister Inderjit Singh said that the NDC had once approved SCS for a few states but AP was not in the list.

Jairam Ramesh questioned the reluctance of the Modi government on AP SCS issue even though the NDA government is continuing with UPA’s Aadara and GST. He recapped that when the then Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh announced SCS for 5 years, then opposition leader Venkaiah Naidu said it is the demand of AP people to grant SCS for 10years.

CPI leader D Raja restated that during the bifurcation of the state, the party demanded SCS to AP and on the request of Arun Jaitely and Venkaiah Naidu, UPA government heeded to the request. He even demanded the government to be transparent about the status of the 11SCS states.

Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agarwal supported KVP’s argument and demanded the NDA government to announce SCS to AP immediately. However, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien requested the members not to raise the SCS topic in the house.