Govt has scrapped 'very idea' of spl category status: Ramesh

Claiming that the Centre has "abolished the very idea of special category status", Congress MP Jairam Ramesh today questioned whether the same would be given to Andhra Pradesh as he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "betraying" the traditions of parliamentary democracy.
Even as party vice president Rahul Gandhi urged Modi to grant the special status to the state when he visits AP to lay the foundation stone for its new capital, Ramesh alleged that the Centre has "abolished the very idea of special category status".
"Eleven other (special category) states are (already) there. Even for them, they have abolished the very idea of special category status," Ramesh, a Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh, told PTI.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Congress today released a letter from Gandhi to Modi in which the party vice president has urgently requesting the prime minister to grant special category status to AP and announce a time-frame for fulfilment of the commitments made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. Modi is to lay the foundation stone for the development of Amaravati, the new capital of the state, on October 22.
Referring to the special status issue, Ramesh, a former Union Environment Minister, said the "solemn promise" in this regard was made by the former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
"This was something that Mr Venkaiah Naidu and Mr Arun Jaitley (key BJP leaders in the opposition then) were party to on February 20, 2014, in Rajya Sabha, and I think by not giving special category status, Mr Modi has betrayed the finest traditions of parliamentary democracy," he said.

"I have asked this question (on extension of special category status to AP) in Parliament three times and on all three occasions, the Finance Minister said 'no'," he said.
Opposition parties in AP -- YSR Congress, Congress and CPI -- have been targeting the NDA dispensation at the Centre and the TDP-BJP government in the state on the special category status issue and agitating in support of the demand.
Pushing AP's cause, Gandhi told Modi in his letter that over one year has passed since the NDA government came to power but many of the commitments made to the state, including for the grant of special status, remain unfulfilled.