Andhra would have developed faster if Centre had cooperated: Naidu

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu launched a fresh salvo on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre on Friday, saying the state would have developed much faster if the latter had cooperated.

"Had Centre properly cooperated with us, we would have developed much faster. The Central Government is not cooperating, but it will not stop us from moving ahead," Naidu said at a press conference here.

Referring to Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) exit from the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition at the Centre, Naidu said, "I waited for four years... I took the right decision at the right time."

Naidu further said that his government fulfilled more than 95 percent of the promises made to the public and Andhra Pradesh remained on the top in the agricultural sector post the bifurcation.

"We have fixed some targets- to be one of the top three states by 2023, to be the best state in India by 2029, and to be a global level state by 2050," he added.

The TDP government has also set a target to make the state full of LED street lamps by October 2, Naidu said.

He further enumerated several achievements of the state government in education and health sector, women safety, housing, eradicating corruption, and the like.

"We created an ecosystem conducive for investments. If all MoUs come to realty, state will get 19 lakh crores investments and 40 lakh jobs," he said.

Naidu also noted the government is focusing on food processing and reducing the cost of agriculture, in the coming days, and underlined the state government's efforts to strike a balance between development and welfare in the state.

"Had center helped us much, we would have recovered much better from bifurcation problems," he reiterated.

The TDP's major grievance with the Center is latter's failure to deliver on the promise of granting Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh.

On March 16, the ruling TDP reached a deadlock with BJP over this issue and ultimately quit the NDA coalition.