NEW DELHI: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assured the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that the NDA government will honour all commitments made towards Andhra Pradesh in “letter and spirit”, following protests by some Congress members in the House.
Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that two years ago, when the State of Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh, the biggest issue among the two was of the capital. “Hyderabad went to Telangana, leading to a revenue loss for Andhra Pradesh,” he said, adding that the then PM Manmohan Singh had on the floor of Rajya Sabha on February 20, 2014 announced measures to mitigate the hardship of Andhra Pradesh, including formation of a new capital.
Some Congress members, including J D Seelam, Renuka Chowdhury and K V P Ramachandra Rao, trooped into the Well, raising slogans and demanding a reply from the government.
Reacting to Congress members sloganeering, Jaitley said the Centre is fully committed to helping Andhra Pradesh. “Centre is fully committed to helping the newly created State after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh...There are several commitments which are involved in the AP Reorganisation Act. Centre is going to honour each one of those commitments in letter and spirit,” he said.
Similar noisy scenes were witnessed in the Lok Sabha as Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge demanded that the government was not going ahead with the promise to grant special category status to the State of Andhra Pradesh after its bifurcation. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that the Bill adopted by the Parliament does not mention granting of any special category status. “Government is continuously monitoring Andhra Pradesh”.