Lok Satta Party (LSP) founder-president Jayaprakash Narayan has maintained that the division of Andhra Pradesh without a capital city of its own is a colossal loss to residuary State.
The Union government had a responsibility to undo the “grave injustice” done to the State by implementing all the promises, including the Special Category Status (SCS), it had made on the Floor of Parliament at the time of bifurcation, Mr. Narayan told the media late on Saturday.
No other State was divided in such an unjustified manner, he said, and referred to retention of Patna with Bihar, Bhopal with Madhya Pradesh, and Bombay with Maharashtra when these States were divided to form new States of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat respectively, he said.
It was unfortunate that uncertainty still continued over the capital with only two years left for Hyderabad being the joint capital of the twin Telugu-speaking States, and Andhra Pradesh lagged behind in development as a result, Mr. Narayan observed.
It was a different matter Hyderabad was geographically located in the central part of Telangana, he said, adding Andhra Pradesh lacked the level of development witnessed in States with big cities such as Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
The former bureaucrat also said responsibility was also there on the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) to take all parties in the State along with it and impress upon the Centre to fulfill the long list of promises made at the time of bifurcation, adhering to the spirit of federalism.
It would always be better for the State to take up the demands with the Centre in a cordial atmosphere, instead of resorting to confrontation, he opined.
