Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao reaffirmed support for special category status to Andhra Pradesh while claiming that his counterpart Chandrababu Naidu is going to lose the forthcoming elections and is "abusing" him every day.
"Our MPs have spoken in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha in support of giving special category status to Andhra Pradesh. Even now we have the same stand. After winning seats in the elections, our MPs will offer support in bringing special category status to Andhra Pradesh," he said while addressing a rally here on Monday.
The demand to bring Andhra Pradesh under the Special Category gained momentum after the region split into two states. Telangana, which is India's youngest state, was carved out of Andhra in 2014. Andhra Pradesh's capital Hyderabad, also a rising IT hub with the majority of jobs, was also shifted to Telangana.
At present, as many as 11 states- Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Mizoram--have been granted financial aid under this category as a majority of these regions have hilly-terrain and have a considerable tribal population.
The responsibility of allocating the funds to special and general category states, which are based on Madhav Gadgil-Pranab Mukherjee (1969) formula is on the shoulders of the central government.
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