Have fulfilled most promises made under AP Reorganisation Act: Rajnath
New Delhi, July 24 : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that the BJP-led Central government has fulfilled "around 90 per cent" of the commitments made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, and was committed to fulfil the rest "at any cost".
"Our government will fulfil all the commitments made not only by our Prime Minister but also those made by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," he said in Rajya Sabha while replying to a short duration discussion on the implementation of AP Reorganisation Act that carved out the state of Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a former NDA coalition partner, had asked for a discussion on the issue, alleging that "justice" was not being done with the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh in terms of granting it special category status.
In his reply, Rajnath Singh said that he could not understand why some members were stuck with the word "special category status" when the Centre was actually giving Andhra "even those incentives not mentioned in the Act".
"There was some conflict between the commitments made by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, and hence it was decided in consultation with Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu that instead of granting special category status, Andhra Pradesh should be given special assistance.
"The Chief Minister had in September 2016 agreed to this arrangement and said in the state Assembly in a statement that special assistance was more useful than the special category status," he said.
"I would also like to clarify that special category status is different from special industrial incentive. The former does not necessarily include industrial incentive. But the promise of giving the Telugu states industrial incentive has already been fulfilled," he added.
The Home Minister underlined that Andhra was being given Rs 22,123 crore as revenue deficit spread over five years ending FY 2019-20.
He said that out of the 11 higher education institutions promised in the Act for Andhra, 10 have already been approved and many of them "have started functioning", and stressed that the railway zone as promised under the act "will be established".
He said that for the "lifeline" Pollavaram Irrigation Project, the Centre has already released over Rs 6,764 crore and it has also accepted the state's proposal about implementation of the project. He hoped that it will be completed in a "record time".
He said that the Centre even agreed to the state's demand of giving a loan through NABARD but since it could not be given directly for technical reasons, the Andhra government was asked to create a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the same to whom the loan would be disbursed.
"The state hasn't got back about the SPV so far," he said.
"We want development of all states whether we have our party government there or not. Because we realize that until all states progress, our dream of making India progress will not come true. I would also like to clarify that we don't do politics just to make governments but to build the nation," he said.
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LPG crisis: Karnataka temples gear up to stock wooden logs for ‘Prasada’
Bengaluru (PTI): Temples in Karnataka have started preparations to stock wooden logs fearing that the LPG shortage could hamper the ‘Prasada’ preparation and distributions to the devotees.
The looming LPG crisis in the state in the wake of Iran-Israel conflict has made the temple managements jittery.
According to the Akhila Karnataka Hindu Temple Archakas Federation (AKHTAF) president M S Venkatachalaiah, there is no immediate crisis in the temples.
“We have LPG cylinder stock that can last for a week but if this scarcity continues then there will be a problem in serving Prasada (offerings to the deity) to the devotees,” AKHTAF president said.
He added that many temples in the state have started stocking wooden logs to overcome the LPG crisis.
“Our temples have started preparing to store wooden logs to prepare Prasada though currently we don’t have a problem, at least for a week,” Venkatachalaiah told PTI.
Another priest working in a temple belonging to the state Endowment Department said the temples may have to go back to the traditional way of cooking as done in the ancient time using wood.
The LPG crisis has not affected the mid-day meal programme for government school students yet, though there was a meeting in the Education Department to find ways to tackle if crisis deepens, sources associated with the Mid-day Meal programme said.
Meanwhile, the largest partner of the Mid-day Meal programme in the country is Akshaya Patra.
The NGO said they do not depend much on LPG gas cylinder.
“The LPG crisis has not affected us. Our kitchens are steam-based, and we generate steam through boilers which run on electricity. That’s point number one. Point number two—gas is used only for very minor things, mainly for seasoning. That is the tadka,” an Akshaya Patra executive told PTI.
According to him, the NGO has has a gas reserves for about nearly one month across India, though gas is used in very small quantities every day.
He pointed out that the Mid-day meal programme will not be affected because in one or one-and-a-half weeks, schools will close owing to summer vacation.
Akshaya Patra feeds 23.5 lakh children across more than 24,000 schools across India, in 16 states and three Union Territories, he said.
