Plea seeks grant of SCS to Andhra as per Bifurcation Act

HYDERABAD: A PIL case was filed in the Hyderabad High Court seeking the court intervention by directing the Union of India to grant special category status for Andhra Pradesh state and to implement the promises/provisions made at the time of passage of the AP Re-organisation Bill, 2014.

Petitioner Shivaji Sontineni, a resident of the city, in his plea, pointed out that the Bill was not opposed in Parliament by the main opposition party i.e. the present ruling party following the statement made by the then Prime Minister promising ‘special category status’ for AP. “A resolution was passed by the Union cabinet and sent to the Planning Commission for appropriate action on status issue. Even the promises made by the functionaries of the present ruling party during last elections were not yet fulfilled. As per Section 94 of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014, the Central government shall take appropriate fiscal measures, including offer of tax incentives, to the successor states to promote industrialisation and economic growth. Due to non-implementation of the promises and provisions, the people of AP are under distress and are facing inconvenience in terms of lack of governance, legal system, investments and resources,” he added.

He sought the court to set up a high level coordination committee to monitor the implementation of AP Reorganisation Act and to direct the AP government to implement the provisions without causing hardship to the students, employees and farmers of the state.

Cabinet secretary to Union of India, member secretary of NITI Aayog and chief secretary of AP were named as the respondents. The matter is expected to come up for hearing before a division bench on Monday.

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