NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government has decided to provide a "special assistance" of Rs.1,976.5 crore to Andhra Pradesh to "compensate the financial impact arising out of the bifurcation". But the special category status, which the state was expecting, has proved elusive.
This this includes a Rs.350 crore special grant to seven backward districts across the Rayalaseema and North Coastal region and Rs. 450 crore to help build a new capital city, the government said.
Hyderabad -- the joint capital of the Andhra Pradesh and the newly carved Telangana -- goes to the latter after a decade. By the time, Andhra Pradesh is expected to have a new capital, for which work has already started.
Earlier this month, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sources had said Mr Naidu had been expecting PM Modi to deliver on his promise of special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
The lawmakers of the lawmakers of Mr Naidu's party, the TDP, which is part of the NDA, have already submitted a memorandum warning that if special category status is not granted to the state, there could be a political backlash for the alliance.
