Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu reiterated his demand for grant for “Special Status” to his State by the Centre.
Addressing the May Day celebrations here on Sunday, Naidu alleged said that Andhra Pradesh State was bifurcated against the wishes of its people. Therefore, he said that the Centre should adopt a liberal approach in helping Andhra Pradesh. He said there would be no compromise on the issue of “Special Status” to AP. He said that the previous UPA Government had promised special category status to AP for five years. However, he said AP wanted the status for 10 years.
Naidu said that the TDP joined the NDA Government at the Centre only to protect the interest of Andhra Pradesh. He recalled that when the NDA under Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power, the TDP refused to join the Union Cabinet and supported the government from outside to get more benefits for the State.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister launched ‘Chandranna Beema Padhakam’, an accidental insurance for workers in the unorganised sector. Under this scheme, each worker will get an accidental insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh and this would cover about 1.5 crore workers in the unorganised sector in the State.
Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Sujana Chowdary, State Ministers K Atchannaidu, Palle Raghunatha Reddy, D Umamaheswara Rao, P Pulla Rao and others participated. The Chief Minister presented ‘Srama Shakti’ awards to workers and also awards to best managements on the occasion. (INN)