"Special Category Status is the Right of People of Andhra Pradesh and the commitment made by UPA Govt Prime Minister is not being kept," senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh who is also the in charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana tweeted.
The Centre yesterday announced a financial package for Andhra Pradesh that includes full funding of Pollavaram irrigation project, tax concessions and a special assistance, but stopped short of giving the state a special category status.
"Nothing new in what Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has promised to AP. The excuse of Finance Commission by FM is not correct as Finance Commission has not made any such recommendation ," he tweeted.
Citing constraints placed by the 14th Finance Commission in grant of special category status to Andhra Pradesh, Jaitley had said an amount equivalent to what that categorization would have fetched, would be given to the state in form of a Special Assistance Measure for five years.
Congress has been pitching for a special category status for Andhra Pradesh for long and party vice president Rahul Gandhi had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the same.
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