Sitaram Yechury Says Centre Not Committed To Special Category Status 

New Delhi: CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday slammed the NDA government for not according Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh (AP). He has expressed doubts over the commitment of the NDA government on the issue.

YSRCP President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy along with party MPs on Tuesday met Yechury as part of his Delhi tour to mobilize support of various political parties on the issue. Yechuri and YS Jagan spoke to the media after their meeting here on Tuesday.

The NDA government doesn’t seem to be willing to accord special status to AP. The issue of how other States demanding special status does not arise as the status was promised to AP on the floor of Parliament.

Yechury said: “The NDA government doesn’t seem to be willing to accord special status to AP. The issue of how other States demanding special status does not arise as the status was promised to AP on the floor of Parliament.”

Yechury further said that his party was against bifurcation of united AP.
“We had asked the UPA government not to bifurcate AP without thrashing out issues such as sharing of water, debt, budget deficit. Venkaiah Naidu had then made a statement in house that if BJP came to power, it would give special status for 10 years instead of five years. Now, BJP is in power, but is going back on the assurance. AP can get special status only through concerted agitations.. CPM will extend support to any agitation aimed at getting special status.”