“The Centre has also agreed to set up a railway zone with headquarters at Visakhapatnam,“ the Union minister of state claimed.
Mar 16 2015 : The Times of India (Hyderabad)
AP to get Rs 10K cr from Centre, says Sujana
Krishna Prasad
Hyderabad...
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Under severe pressure from its alliance partner TDP , the NDA government has reportedly decided to dole out Rs 10,000 crore to Andhra Pradesh as part of its efforts to fulfill promises made in the AP Reorganization Act.
This was disclosed by Union minister of state for science and technology Y S Chowdary on Sunday . “The Centre has decided to give Rs 7,500 crore to bridge the resource gap for AP for the year 2014-15 and Rs 1,000 crore for the construction of the capital city as well as another Rs 1,350 crore as compensation for losing out General Sales Tax. The Union cabinet is likely to clear the same at its meeting next week,“ Chowdary told TOI.
According to the minister, the NDA government was constrained to a certain extent as the previous UPA government had not included several promises made by then prime minister Manmohan Singh in the AP Reorganization Act. “The UPA did not even give cabinet clearance to the assurances given to AP ,“ he said.
Chowdary said the Centre has agreed to start classes this academic year in the institutes of excellence that were sanctioned under the Act, even if it means functioning from rented premises.
“The IIM at Visakhap atnam, IIT at Tirupati, AIIMS, NIT, Na tional Disaster Management Institute and the agriculture university will start operations this year. The tribal university, petroleum university , central university , IIIT and IISER will start from the next academic year. Apart from these, the Centre has agreed to set up a badminton academy , weightlifting academy , customs academy at Hindupur, a floriculture institute at Pedavegi in West Godavari district and the National Institute of Oceanography ,“ he said.
On its part, AP has sent to the Centre proposals to set up a national institute of planning and architecture, fashion technology institute, solar research institute, national science centre, Tagore cultural complex, national sports academy and rail university . “The Centre has also agreed to set up a railway zone with headquarters at Visakhapatnam,“ the Union minister of state claimed.
“We are bringing maximum pressure on the NDA government and Chandrababu Naidu has made it clear that unless there is substantial assistance from the Centre, there would be no level playing field for AP ,“ he said.