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The separate addresses of Governor, ESL Narasimhan, to the legislatures of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana at the beginning of their budget sessions on Friday presented a contrasting picture of both the states.
While the Governor, who first addressed the AP legislature, emphasised how the bifurcation of the state had eroded its resource base and stated that the "Centre should give required assistance to stand on a level playing field vis-a-vis its neighbouring states", he did not mention about Union government at all in his subsequent address to the Telangana legislature.
Apart from outlining the policies of the government, the Governor told the AP legislators that post bifurcation issues, especially the huge financial deficits, continued to affect the state.
The recommendations of the Fourteenth Finance Commission have not provided any special preference to the state. Also, "our expectations for the state from the Union Budget 2015-16 did not fructify", the Governor said adding that " a more favourable response is still awaited" from the Centre.
Nevertheless, he said, that both AP and Telangana have achieved encouraging growth rates in 2014-15. While gross state domestic product (GSDP) of Telangana grew at 5.3 per cent as against 4.8 per cent in 2013-14, the economy of AP had registered a growth rate of 7.21 per cent.
Interestingly, the Governor said that AP's growth rate would exceed the national average growth rate of 7.4 per cent if the new base year was taken into consideration ( the base year was revised by the Centre from 2004-05 to 2011-12).
The governor's 17-minute speech to the Telangana legislature was marred by slogan shouting by members of the Telugu Desam, BJP and Communist parties who protested against the ruling TRS party for "encouraging defections'.
