At a time when everybody in Andhra Pradesh appears to have forgotten the demand for special category status to the state, YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has raised the issue once again.
He told a meeting of senior officials in Tadepalli that he would take up the issue of granting special category status to AP at the Southern Zonal Council meeting scheduled to be held on November 14 at Tirupati.
The meeting would be chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and attended by Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Puducherry and Lieutenant Governors of Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar and administrator of Lakshwadeep.
As the officials informed Jagan that all the pending issues related to the AP Reorganisation Act have been included in the agenda, the chief minister said he would also voice the demand of the people for Special Category Status provision to AP.
The chief minister would take up various other issues such as Polavaram project, repayment of power dues of Rs 6300 crore, pending dues from Tamil Nadu for the Telugu Ganga project, revenue shortfall, pending arrears in Civil Supplies from Telangana State and Rational allocation of PDS rice by the Centre.
AP would also take up at the Southern Zonal Council meeting the issue of bringing the Jurala project under the purview of KRMB along with a discussion on the proposal by Centre on interlinking of rivers. The agenda also includes freezing of FD accounts, division of assets and other key issues.
Jagan directed the officials to bring out the key issues pertaining to the State that needs to be addressed and instructed them to be fully prepared for the meeting, even to those queries raised by the other States related to Andhra Pradesh.
