Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reimburse ₹2,900 crore, which was spent by the State government on the Polavaram project, and to provide ₹10,000 crore on an ad hoc basis.
Reddy, who is in Delhi, called on the Prime Minister and urged him to approve the revised cost estimate of ₹55,548 crore for the Polavaram project, which has been approved by the Technical Advisory Committee.
He also appealed to implement the relief and rehabilitation package to the displaced families in direct benefit transfer mode to ensure transparency. He also asked the Prime Minister to release funds of ₹32,625 crore under the Resource Gap Fund for various pending bills under the 10th Pay Commission, including social security pensions and others during the period 2014-15.
The Chief Minister explained to the Prime Minister that due to the lack of rationalisation in the selection of eligible persons under the National Food Security Act, the State is suffering serious losses and has already brought this matter to his attention, where a large number of needy and deserving persons were uncovered. He said that the state government is providing rations to 2.68 crore beneficiaries, of which 61 per cent belong to rural areas and 41 per cent are from urban areas.
Bifurcation promises
On the promises given during State bifurcation in 2014, Reddy said that there was no rationality in the bifurcation because of which the State had suffered a lot and requested the Prime Minister to fulfil the promises given as a parliamentary witness, including Special Category Status.
He said that the NITI Aayog has already met with the State government officials and informed the centre to revise the data in this regard and reminded the Prime Minister that the allocations to Andhra Pradesh should be examined. He explained to the Prime Minister that 3 lakh tonnes of the rice quota allotted to the State every month remains unutilised, and asked him to allocate only 77,000 tonnes, which would be sufficient for the distribution without causing any additional burden on the Centre.
Also, the Chief Minister said that an arrear of ₹6,756 crore receivable by Andhra Pradesh Generation Corporation Limited (APGENCO) from the Telangana Government has remained unresolved for over eight years and requested the Prime Minister to direct the concerned authorities to settle the dues at the earliest.
With regard to setting up an Integrated Steel Plant in the YSR district, he requested to allocate iron mines to APMDC for an uninterrupted supply of iron ore to operate the plant. He said that the allocation of mines is very important for setting up a steel plant, which enables the stable transport of ore. He requested the Prime Minister to give approval to allot beach sand minerals to the Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation, which could attract investments of ₹20,000 crore. He said that 14 approvals are in a pending state.