3 Mega cities in AP: Naidu

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, June 12, 2014: Andhra Pradesh chief minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, has assured 3 mega cities and to make towns coming under 14 municipal corporations into smart cities. “State government would develop, Vizag, Vijayawada and Tirupaty as mega cities. Also steps will be taken to turn those towns coming under municipal corporations into smart cities. I have pleaded the earlier government to do justice to Andhra Pradesh during bifurcation. But they have done it in the most unreasonable manner. After bifurcation, AP has around 15, 900 crs of deficit budget. We need at least Rs 4 to 5 lakh crs to build our capital. We will seek Centre’s help,” Naidu said.

The chief minister also said that, they would seek Centre to extend the special status accorded to the state as part of bifurcation deal from 5 to 15 years. Terming AP as sunrise state for being on the east coast and in middle of the country, Naidu said, efforts would be on to establish 13 to 14 ports on war footing to trigger economy. He said many industries in the sectors like ferro alloys, fertilizers and many other are ready to come up in the state. 

Stating that AP is facing acute power shortage, Naidu, said steps would be taken for uninterrupted 24 hrs power supply to industries and households and 9 hours to agriculture needs by establishing a separate load dispensing centre by connecting power generated by  the new power plants that are coming up. If needed government will ask power from Centre, he added.

“Earlier Congress government had done gross injustice to AP. They have divided assets according to location and debt and liabilities as per population. During my regime, I have strived hard to make AP both budget and power surplus. During my earlier stint, I have taken over when the state was not even in a position to pay salaries to staff and I made it a power and budget surplus. But the Congress government destroyed the state. I will strive hard to make AP power surplus,” he added.

He further said state government will take steps to regularly monitor prices of essential commodities and will develop a price mechanism with marker intervention.