TIRUPATI: Asserting that the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act was enacted in a fair and rational manner, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said if the act was implemented properly, cities such as Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and others would be on par with Hyderabad in 10 years. Addressing a meeting on ‘Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act’ organised by the Congress in Tirupati on Saturday, the Congress leader said that it was sad that neither the BJP government in the Centre nor the Telugu Desam Party government in the State had taken up the implementation process of the Act seriously. He said the ruling TDP is part of the Central government, headed by Narendra Modi, but it has failed to get the provisions in the AP Reorganisation Act implemented.
“It will only get implemented in letter and spirit when the Congress government is in Centre. It will happen in 2019 and our first priority will be the implementation of the Act in toto,” the Congress leader said. The Congress leader maintained that the AP Reorganisation Act was fair to both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. He blamed the TDP for failing to implement the Act as it had ulterior motives.
Citing the Polavaram Project as an example, he said that in the AP Reorganisation Act, it was clearly mentioned that the project would be a national project and the Central government would bear all cost for its execution.
“However, it is being executed by the State government. Why? For benefiting its favourite contractors,” he said and added it was for getting kickbacks from the contractors. He wondered how Chandrababu Naidu has become the richest Chief Minister in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Chinta Mohan, former Congress MP, said that the State government had not maintained transparency, either in revenue generation or expenditure of the State.