Naidu for confidence-building steps to attract investments

Amaravati: While releasing a white paper on damage suffered to building futuristic capital Amaravati due to the decision of the erstwhile YSRCP regime to have three capitals, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said he will discuss all important issues pertaining to rebuilding Andhra Pradesh during his Delhi visit.

Before flying for the national capital on Wednesday evening, Naidu said Amaravati will be made one of the best capitals in the world. He told the media that the government will take into consideration the initiatives being taken to construct top six upcoming cities including Neom in Saudi Arabia, at the northern tip of the Red Sea, located on the east of Egypt across the Gulf of Aqaba and south of Jordan at a cost of $500 billion.

Naidu accompanied by his ministerial colleagues including Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav, during his first visit to Delhi after taking over reins of AP after a gap of five years, is expected to demand social grants for rebuilding Amaravati, expedite construction of Polavaram national multi-purpose irrigation project and other projects. The trip also assumes significance as Naidu and his Telangana counterpart A Revanth Reddy are scheduled for a face-to-face discussion to thrash out differences over bifurcation issues in Hyderabad on July 6.

At the meeting of two Telugu-speaking State Chief Ministers, division of assets and liabilities of Schedule IX and X institutions including APSRTC and immovable assets like Lake View Guest House and water resources will come up for discussion. As many as 91 issues under Schedule IX and 142 listed in the Schedule 10 of AP Reorganisation Act and 12 other institutes not mentioned in the Act will figure in the discussion.

There is no indication whether Naidu will reiterate the demand for granting Special Category Status for AP, a promise made by the BJP during the run-up to the 2014 general elections. There is already a demand in Bihar for granting special status. Both the TDP and the JD (U) are crucial partners to BJP in forming the NDA Government at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While TDP has 16 MPs in Lok Sabha, Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) has 12, the support of which is crucial for BJP, which fell short of a majority on its own unlike 2014 and 2019 elections.

To a question, Naidu said “we will consult all the NDA partners on rebuilding AP as they went to polls as an alliance.” He said the need of the hour is to initiate confidence-building measures (CBM) as the investors had lost confidence due to ‘one-sided and anti-people’ decisions taken by his predecessor YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. “The brand image of AP has suffered a severe jolt. The State is in ruins due to a dictator. We need to talk to everyone. We have to try to convince Singapore, which backed off from developing Amaravati as a people’s capital. I don’t know whether the Singaporean Consortium and others will come back. It needs collective efforts to win back the confidence of the investors,” he contended.