Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum containing issues to be sorted out by the Union government, which mainly include bridging of revenue deficit for 2014-15 amounting to ₹32,625 crore and approval of revised cost of Polavaram project.
In his interaction with the Prime Minister that lasted about 45 minutes, Mr. Jagan requested him to get the funds released towards the revenue gap at the earliest and to ensure that the Telangana power utilities paid ₹6,627.86 crore, which they owed to the AP-Genco and AP-Transco, without further delay.
Loans
The Chief Minister said the State was finding it difficult to raise loans as the borrowing limit was reduced by ₹17,923 crore by taking into account the excess borrowings made by the previous government between 2016-17 and 2018-19. They were only loans and not grants availed by the State, he pointed out and appealed to the Prime Minister to set things right.
Further, Mr. Jagan requested Mr. Modi to approve the revised cost of Polavaram project (₹55,548.87 crore) by taking to his notice that the technical advisory committee of the Central Water Commission had already given its sanction, and to consider the drinking water component as an integral part of the project in tune with the norm related to such national projects.
Also, the Chief Minister asked Mr. Modi to deliver the financial package to the Polavaram project displaced families through the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme.
Rice quota
Mr. Jagan wanted the anomalies in the selection of beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act to be removed and said the NITI Aayog found that the State was not getting the full quota of rice allotted to it under the National Food Security Mission.
He sought speedy permissions for 12 medical colleges proposed to be established by the State. He told the Prime Minister that the number of districts went up to 26 after the reorganisation, but there were only 11 medical colleges. The Centre sanctioned three medical colleges, taking the total number to 14 for 26 districts. The Central government should, therefore, give clearance for 12 new colleges, he said.
Mr. Jagan appealed to the Prime Minister to get a fresh clearance given by the Ministry of Civil Aviation for the construction of the international airport at Bhogapuram, near Visakhapatnam, as the previous one had expired, and to allot iron ore to the AP Mineral Development Corporation on a continuous basis for the sake of construction of the Kadapa Steel Plant, which was a major promise in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
Lastly, Mr. Jagan requested Mr. Modi to give permission for mining of beach sand at 14 locations to facilitate the implementation of the proposed integrated beach sand minerals project.
