Vijayawada, Nov 21: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy held discussions with Chief Secretary K S Jawahar Reddy and other top officials at his camp office here on Monday on the issues to be raised at tomorrow’s meeting with the Union Home Secretary in New Delhi on the 13th schedule of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
The Chief Minister told them to raise the issues of pending funds for the Polavaram project, special category status to the State, and non-payment of power bill arrears from Telangana, among others.
Pointing out that several promises made in the 13th schedule remained unresolved even after ten years of bifurcation, he said that injustice was done to the State with the Centre allotting 58 percent of the debts and 42 percent in revenues to Andhra Pradesh while allotting 58 percent revenues to Telangana.
As three capitals were announced for decentralised development of the State, he directed the officials to seek the financial support of the Centre for the construction of the roads and development of other infrastructure.
He told the officials to remind the Centre that it had given assurance on the Kadapa Steel Plant and Dugarajapatnam Port and put pressure on it for the fulfillment of the promises.
Visakha Railway zone issue should also be raised in the meeting besides seeking to expedite the establishment of Central Agricultural University as sought by the State and build a high-speed rail corridor linking Visakhapatnam and Kadapa via Kurnool, he said.
The Chief Minister asked the officials to specifically raise the issue of Bhogapuram airport being built as a replacement for Visakhapatnam airport which is facing hurdles in civil aviation due to the Eastern Naval Command activity.
He told them to seek funds for laying the highway between Visakhapatnam and Bhogapuram airports and fulfilling the promise of upgrading Vijayawada, Tirupati, and Visakhapatnam airports as international airports.
Raising the issue of Visakha Metro Rail, the Chief Minister told the officials to seek 40 percent of the funds from the Centre for acquiring the land and construction of the project as private promoters have come forward to bear 60 percent of the cost.
