Asserting that providing special status will not automatically solve all problems of Andhra Pradesh, Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu today said the Centre will fulfill all promises made in a "record time" as he listed out a slew of initiatives taken for the state's development.
Intervening in the short duration discussion on grant of special status to Andhra Pradesh in Rajya Sabha, he said no government has ever done as much as by the NDA government for the state in the country's history.
Responding to demands for granting special status to Andhra Pradesh, Naidu said the matter has been hanging fire as the previous Congress-led UPA government which bifurcated the state had not brought this in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
"The only measure of granting special status to Andhra Pradesh will not solve all the problems of the state automatically," he said.
"Whatever is required, the Central government is doing for Andhra Pradesh. Whatever has been promised we will fulfil them in record time. No government has done this much for Andhra Pradesh so far in the country's history," he said.
He said something has been promised on issue of revenue deficit to Andhra Pradesh, but figures are not matching and the Finance Minister is working out to resolve the issue.
Attacking the Congress, Naidu said the intention of the previous government was not sincere as it did not include the granting of special status to Andhra in the Act itself even though it was suggested by him and his party at the time.
"I demanded and requested you that this special status issue be included in the Act itself. I wanted that this should have been included in the bill itself so that there is no problem in implementing it as it would have become binding on everybody," he told the opposition members.
He said Congress member Jairam Ramesh, who was then a Minister and authored the bill, had replied to him on this issue that they did not want to take the bill back to Lok Sabha as its own members were protesting.
Naidu said this government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken several initiatives that includes setting up of AIIMS, IIT and the Polavaram project besides setting up many other institutes across Andhra.
He also targeted the Congress for carrying out Andhra's bifurcation at the last minute just before they were going out of power and did not bring the bill since 2004 to 2014.
