TDP asks Centre to spell out financial 'formula' with specific timelines
Chandrababu Naidu
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had earlier publicly voiced unhappiness over the recent Union budget not offering any special benefits to Andhra Pradesh.
TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday asked the Centre to spell out its ‘formula’ for the state with specific timelines, a day after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assured agitating TDP MPs in Parliament that the Centre would soon come out with a plan to release a special financial package to Andhra Pradesh.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu demanded for financial support by working out an "extrabudgetary" route to provide funds required for the state's development and reconstruction activities.
“The Centre should clearly spell out what it has done for the state in the last four years and what it will do now. It should announce a plan of action with clear timelines,” Naidu said.
On Jaitley’s statement in Rajya Sabha yesterday, Naidu asked: “What is this new formula (for bridging the revenue deficit) now? When no formula was applied to divide the state, why a new formula now to help the distressed state?”
Speaking to TDP MPs, legislators and senior leaders over teleconference, Naidu said: “This is a problem between two governments (the Centre and the state). This is a problem on which we have to fight in Parliament and not on the streets.”
The Left Parties have called for a bandh in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday against the budgetary allocations received by the state in the recent Budget and also appealed to the leaders of non-political joint action committee (JAC) to participate in large numbers and make the bandh a grand success.
Naidu had also called for an "emergency party meeting" with the leaders on February 2 after criticising the Union Budget 2018 which was presented on Thursday by finance minister Arun Jaitley.
The meeting was called in order to discuss the "future course of action after the budget allocation for Andhra Pradesh", the party said, adding that it would continue to "fight" for the state's due.