Centre convenes meet to discuss AP issues

The Centre has convened a meeting on September 6 with the Andhra Pradesh government to review various long-pending Centre-State Coordination issues, particularly those listed in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

Issues related to departments like Steel, Water Resources, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Civil Aviation, Environment and Forests, Industry and Internal Trade and Defence Research and Development will be reviewed through a videoconference at 3.30 pm on Monday, the Union Cabinet Secretariat informed the state government.

Though more than seven years have elapsed since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, many major promises incorporated in the Act have not been fulfilled yet.

Prime among them is the setting up of an integrated steel plant in Kadapa district and a greenfield crude oil refinery and petrochemical complex (in Kakinada).

These two are among 13 issues that will be taken up for review in Monday's meeting.

There are many other issues that have not made any headway in the last seven years, despite repeated representations to the Centre by successive governments. ''This is the first time the Centre is convening such a high-level official meeting to discuss the long-pending issues. Hopefully, something comes out of it at least now,'' a top government official here said.

Interestingly, the issue of setting up a new port in the state has not been listed in the Monday meeting's agenda, though it is also a promise made in the Act.

Conducting a public hearing in neighbouring Odisha and Chhattisgarh related to the Polavaram multi-purpose project, rescinding the stop-work order on the Polavaram project, setting up of a Petroleum University (in Visakhapatnam), developing the Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor, expanding the airports in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati to international standards are some of the other issues that will come up for review, according to the Cabinet Secretariat's letter.

The issue related to the acquisition of land by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory, Visakhapatnam, for house plots, illegal constructions in Madhavadhara village near Visakhapatnam, construction of a road through NSTL connecting NH-16 and Gopalapatnam and handing over equivalent land to NSTL are also listed in the agenda.