Naidu to come out with vision documents

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who had till now released eight white papers on various subjects, will now release department-wise vision documents, unveiling his plans for the all-round development of the state.

Speaking to reporters after releasing a white paper on the impact of state reorganisation, at his residence here, Naidu said his government would table vision documents in the Assembly.

Besides government business, the white papers and the vision documents are expected to figure prominently in debates during the Assembly session, he added.

He blamed the previous Congress-led UPA government at the Centre for messing up the entire process of bifurcation and creating enmity among Telugus.

As the Centre failed to give clarity on many issues, the two states are clashing on various important issues, he pointed and added that the clash between the two states on fee reimbursement, nativity, ERC and handing over of law and order to Governor was the result of wrong policies adopted while dividing the state.

It is evident that the UPA government had neither created an institutional framework essential for effective governance of the common capital nor put in place standard operating procedures that would provide an equitable platform to both State Governments and ensures safety and security of the citizens, and fair and equitable treatment of all concerned. The simple principles of good governance, it appears, were abandoned with an eye on political dividends, he alleged.

The UPA II government had failed to foresee the difficulties and deliberately ignored the complications that would befall both the States in the aftermath of reorganisation, he said.

Lack of transparency surrounding the reorganisation process and the frenetic pace at which the process was carried out by the then Central government had caused serious disenchantment amongst citizens, he said.

'There was lack of adequate and serious consultations with key stakeholders and consensus amongst key political parties on the issue of bifurcation of the state', he alleged.

He said that AP has not even been assigned a location for its capital city thus far, and instead, an expert committee has been set up by the Centre to give its recommendation in six months from the appointed day.

This is nothing but yet another effort to snatch away the authority and the right of the new State to determine its own capital city, he alleged.

'To compound the problem, the perambulations of the expert committee to different parts of the residuary State has given rise to contending claims, conflicting pronouncements, speculations, expectations and avoidable disappointment,' he said.

The AP Reorganisation Act concocted in a breathless hurry is filled with grave inadequacies, gross inequities, omissions, commissions and errors.

This has placed the residuary Andhra Pradesh at a great disadvantage, he said and added that the reorganisation of the State has created disequilibrium in terms of the developmental dynamics and negatively impacted on a number of key sectors.

He said a careful reading and analysis of the Act reveals that it was the principal source of unfair and unjust treatment to both successor States, with the residuary Andhra Pradesh being the worst sufferer.

Some of its provisions are having and would continue to have adverse impact in the short-term as well as the medium-term on the residuary AP and added that some have been inserted with a deliberate intention to create friction and conflict between the two successor States and ensure protracted litigation to the detriment of all concerned.

Naidu said if we compare the financial position of AP and Telangana states overall, AP is at a significant disadvantage. First, the GSDP of the AP State is only 55.7 percent of the combined State's GSDP, and the per capita income of it is much below that of the Telangana State.

Further, AP has a much higher debt burden compared to Telangana, as population ratio was the sole criterion for apportionment of debt between the two States. The Debt/GSDP ratio of AP is 19.4, compared to 18.1 of Telangana, he said.