‘Issue might come up for debate in the Rajya Sabha on April 12’
Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao on Sunday asserted that the Congress would prove how Special Category Status (SCS) is more beneficial than the ‘special financial package’ offered to Andhra Pradesh (A.P.), when the call attention motion, for which he served a notice, is likely to be taken up for discussion on April 12.
Addressing media persons here, Dr. Ramachandra Rao said the assistance that the TDP-BJP combine claimed to have extended to A.P. was not greater than the benefits to which the State was entitled under the A.P. Reorganisation Act.
But, the BJP and TDP leaders have been consistently spreading falsehoods that SCS is of little use compared to the monetary and institutional support being provided to the fledgeling State.
‘Misinformation campaign’
Dr. Rao recalled that the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised to give SCS for five years and Arun Jaitley wanted it to be for 10 years.
“At their public meeting at Tirupati, Mr. Narendra Modi had offered SCS for 10 years and N. Chandrababu Naidu requested that it should be given for 15 years”, Dr. Rao said, criticising both for confining their public statements to rhetoric.
He insisted that the recommendation said to be made by the 14th Finance Commission for the abolition of Special Category Status was part of the misinformation campaign unleashed by the TDP and its ally heading the Central government.
