Andhra CM Meets Shah, Seeks Higher Allocation for State in Union Budget
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah and demanded adequate allocation of funds in the upcoming Union Budget to tide over the state's deepening financial crisis. According to sources, the meeting at Home Minister Shah's residence particularly expressed the continuance of the causative effects of the 2014 bifurcation and mismanagement by the previous regime.
During his two-day visit to the national capital, Naidu is scheduled to meet with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday to reportedly present their case on the state's financial requirements. According to sources, a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also likely.
Data from the Andhra Pradesh government spells out an unnerving fiscal trend, with public debt going up from 31.02 per cent of GSDP in 2019-20 to 33.32 per cent in 2023-24, indicating a deteriorating financial situation over the past five years.
This is Naidu's second visit to Delhi within a fort-night. On July 4, he met the Prime Minister and presented a seven-point development agenda that discussed ways on how to overcome the post-bifurcation problems faced by the state.
Naidu's push for enhanced allocation comes a day after JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha met Sitharaman with a similar demand, seeking higher allotments for Bihar in the coming budget. TDP and JD(U) are both crucial partners in the BJP-led NDA alliance; TDP used that coalitional equation to bat for Andhra Pradesh's financial requirements in the run-up to the Union Budget 2024.
During his earlier visit to Delhi, Naidu met Shah and other union ministers, including Sitharaman, and took up the state's financial requirements. His meetings here are continuations of that, with an added emphasis on the need for enhanced funding to help the State tide over its acute fiscal crisis.
