Vijayawada/New Delhi, (Thestates.news) | Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the latter’s residence in New Delhi on Thursday to seek financial assistance for the state. A release from the Chief Minister’s office here on Thursday said that Chief Minister Naidu highlighted the fact that Andhra Pradesh continues to grapple with the repercussions of the unscientific, unfair, and unjust bifurcation of 2014.
Additionally, the miserable governance of the previous administration caused financial constraints to AP. Committed expenses, including salaries, pensions, and debt servicing, exceed the State’s revenue receipts, leaving no fiscal space for productive capital investment, he explained to the Prime Minister.
“The situation has reached such an impasse due to gross mismanagement of state finances by the previous government. Indiscriminate borrowing marked by hypothecation of future excise revenues and pledging of Government buildings, combined with large scale diversion of monies has resulted in a situation of high public expectation and acute scarcity of resources. There is no other way to face such a challenge except by way of financial handholding by the central government,” he told the Prime Minister.The Chief Minister sought the Government of India’s handholding of state finances in short term, support in commissioning of the Polavaram National Irrigation Project, comprehensive financial support for completion of the Government complex and trunk infrastructure of the capital city of Amaravati.
The Chief Minister also sought incentives for industrial development consideration for an 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.
He also sought the Centre’s support to the backward regions of Andhra Pradesh on lines of the Bundelkhand package and for the development of Dugarajapatnam port. (UNI)