Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu did not hide his envy at his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao for projecting a revenue-surplus budget.
Naidu told the AP Assembly that the neighbouring Telangana government was cash-rich and KCR himself had admitted that Telangana was the second richest State in the country.
“The credit for the revenue surplus situation in Telangana goes to me. Most of its revenues come from Hyderabad, which was developed because of my efforts. But now, after bifurcation, AP has become a poor State with revenue deficit touching Rs 18,000 crore,” he said.
He said in the last financial year, Andhra Pradesh suffered with multi-dimensional problems, including deficit rainfall of 36 per cent far below normal rain fall. Besides, the State bore the brunt of the dreaded Hudhud cyclone, which destroyed assets worth Rs 69,000 crore and there were inevitable financial setbacks from after- effects of bifurcation of the State.
He, however, said he was trying to convert the crisis into opportunity and reconstructing the State from gross root level.
