VIJAYAWADA: The CPM State Committee has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide funds for the development of State capital Amaravati as a grant and not as a loan.
At a press conference in Vijayawada on Sunday, CPM leaders Y Venkateswara Rao and Ch Babu Rao released an open letter to Modi ahead of his May 2 visit to Amaravati to relaunch the capital development works.
The CPM accused the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre of neglecting its obligations to the State under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. The CPM leaders felt that loans from the World Bank and HUDCO for the capital development could burden the State with a Rs 1 lakh crore debt.
The TDP-led NDA government in the State, which plans to build the capital with Rs 1 lakh crore, should maintain transparency on Central funding, the CPM leaders said.
Highlighting unresolved issues of Amaravati farmers, who gave thousands of acres for the capital development, the CPM leaders strongly opposed the government’s plan to acquire 44,000 more acres.
The Left party leaders condemned Deputy Assembly Speaker K Raghurama Krishnam Raju’s remarks against the CPM, pertaining to demolition of 900 houses of the poor in his home constituency Undi. They demanded justice for the affected families.