The Centre on Wednesday night announced a financial package for Andhra Pradesh that includes full funding of Pollavaram irrigation project, tax concessions and a special assistance, but stopped short of giving the state a special category status. The state government will, however, implement the project, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at a late night press conference hours before the Andhra Pradesh Assembly is to meet. Andhra Pradesh has been demanding a Special Category State (SCS) status from the Centre ever since the state's economic powerhouse Hyderabad, which housed several IT and pharmaceutical companies as well as PSUs, went to Telengana in the bifurcation. "We have examined special category status demand of Andhra Pradesh. Besides Andhra Pradesh, other states including Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Odisha have also sought the Special Category State status.

Source: dna September 07, 2016 18:51 UTC