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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu (Photo: PTI)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu landed in the national capital on Tuesday evening for a two-day visit, his second in less than a fortnight, during which he is slated to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The Andhra CM had visited New Delhi on July 4, where he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and half a dozen Union ministers to discuss financial aid and infrastructure projects for his state. Sources in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) described the progress on one of these demands, the setting up of an oil refinery in Andhra Pradesh, as satisfactory.
In his previous visit, Naidu had asked Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to request BPCL to set up a refinery in Andhra in consonance with Section 93(4) of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. The memorandum that Naidu had submitted to Puri had said that an announcement towards the establishment of a refinery in Andhra in the FM’s Budget speech would “augur well” for increasing the refinery capacity of the country in its journey towards achieving the objective of Viksit Bharat by 2047. TDP sources said they expected such an announcement to be made in the Union Budget (to be tabled on Tuesday).
While the previous visit of Naidu’s was budget-focused, the current one will have him discuss Andhra’s medium-term financial and infrastructure needs, sources said. Unlike the previous visit, where his party MPs had accompanied him to the meetings, sources termed the current visit as “low profile” with one-on-one meetings with key Union ministers.
During his current visit, Naidu will discuss the status of the other demands, such as a financial package for Andhra’s backward regions. In the run-up to the July 4 visit, the Andhra CM had released ‘white papers’ on the rebuilding of the state’s capital in Amaravati and the Polavaram Irrigation Project. In the last few days, Naidu has released another two ‘white papers’ – one on the “looting of the state’s natural resources” by the preceding YSR Congress Party government and another on the pitiable state of Andhra’s power sector.
The Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is a crucial ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government at the Centre. TDP sources said Naidu’s meetings with Shah and Sitharaman were confirmed but that with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still in the works.
Leaders of the other crucial ally of the BJP, Bihar’s Janata Dal (United), have also been meeting Union ministers. On Monday, JD (U)’s national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha met Sitharaman and sought higher funds for Bihar in the upcoming Budget. On Tuesday, Bihar’s industries minister Nitish Mishra met Puri and other officials of the ministry and oil sector PSUs. “We discussed the opportunities of taking forward the compressed biogas initiative in the state of Bihar,” Puri posted on X.
Naidu’s list of demands includes financial assistance worth Rs 1 trillion from the Centre for Amaravati, the Polavaram Irrigation Project, and its backward regions on the lines of the Bundelkhand package. Naidu had also sought the Centre’s handholding of state finances in the short term, incentives for industrial development, and additional allocation under the Scheme for Special Assistance to States for capital investment, targeting essential sectors, such as roads, bridges, irrigation, and drinking water projects. He had also sought assistance for the Dugarajapatnam port.
The Andhra CM suggested that the Centre should set up a mechanism to “effectively coordinate” with the state government for “timely intervention” on issues that it has flagged. In his meeting with Shah, Naidu sought his help to resolve the pending issues related to the division of assets, bifurcation of institutions, and sorting out financial issues between the power distribution companies of the two states.
First Published: Jul 16 2024 | 8:44 PM IST
