At a time when all political parties have been organizing movements demanding the centre to bestow special status on Andhra Pradesh to bail itself out of the throes of bifurcation, TRS Karimanagar MP Vinod Kumar on Friday introduced a private member bill in Lok Sabha seeking special state status to Telangana State. He also demanded the Centre to announce adequate financial package to the new State.
On the other side , Andhra Pradesh Congress Rajya Sabha member T Subbirami Reddy introduced another private member bill in the Upper House demanding the setting up of a circuit bench of the Supreme Court in Visakhapatnam city.TRS member Vinod Kumar introduced the special category state status to Telangana bill with the objective of promoting welfare of SC, ST and other backward sections in the state..
The TRS MP stated that the Telangana region in the undivided Andhra Pradesh had suffered many infrastructure and developmental problems. The new the state was in the grip of drought and farmers suicides. To address these challenges, the TRS Lok Sabha members said, financial assistance in various forms was required from the Centre, particularly under the backward region grant, which had been discontinued.
“With nine out of the ten districts being officially declared as backward, the State of Telangana should be accorded special category status to overcome all the problems,” he demanded..
Recalling that Section 94 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, provides for the central support to both AP and Telangana States, through various measures which include tax incentives, Vinod said, the special package which had been provided to AP should be extended to Telangana State as well. .
Vinod Kumar said Telangana was passing through a situation prevailing in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh warranting central intervention with special plans like the ones announced for the Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi (KBK) of Odisha, the Bundelkhand plan for Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
T Subbirami Reddy, in his private member bill in Rajya Sabha, stated that circuit bench of the Supreme Court in Visakhapatnam city would provide access to litigants from southern India which was far removed from New Delhi. He said the division of the state had further heightened the need for bench of Supreme Court in Vizag, a very important city on the east coast.