HYDERABAD: At a time when the Andhra Pradesh government is expecting a huge financial package from the Centre, similar to that of the recently announced Rs 1.25 lakh-crore package for Bihar, in lieu of special category status, the Union government on Friday announced a financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore to the reorganised state.
A day after Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s hectic parleys with various Union ministers for liberal aid to AP, the Press Information Bureau issued a release on Friday stating that the Centre had announced a further special assistance of Rs 1,000 crore to AP for the current financial year.
“The Central government has decided to continue to support the programmes for the development of backward districts of AP and provide assistance for creation of new capital of the state including the Raj Bhavan, High Court, Government Secretariat, Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council and other such essential infrastructure. Accordingly, the Centre has announced a further special assistance of Rs 1,000 crore during the current financial year if 2015-16,” the release said.
Of the amount, Rs 350 crore (Rs 50 crore per district) is special assistance for the development of seven backward districts covering Rayalaseema and North Andhra, Rs 350 crore for the construction of the new capital city and Rs 300 crore for Polavaram project. A tax incentive has also been provided in the Finance Act, 2015.
An amount of Rs 4,403 crore was already released to the successor state of AP during 2014-2015, which included Rs 350 crore (Rs 50 crore per district) for the development of seven backward districts covering Rayalaseema and North Andhra, Rs 2,303 core for bridging resource gap, Rs 1,500 crore for construction of Raj Bhavan and creating infrastructure facilities in the new capital and Rs 250 crore for Polavaram irrigation project.