Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday thanked the central government for approving special assistance for the state.
Making a statement in the state assembly, he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approving the special assistance in funding externally aided projects and the irrigation component of the Polavaram project.
The Chief Minister also thanked central ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley and Uma Bharati.
Naidu told the house that the Modi government had accepted the state government's demand to give legal sanctity to special assistance measures.
The union cabinet on Wednesday approved the special assistance announced last year in lieu of the promised special category status.
Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is an ally of the Modi government, alleged that the opposition tried to provoke people in the name of special category status.
He said Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, while announcing the special assistance, had made it clear that the state would get the same benefits which it would have got with the special status.
Naidu said the Polavaram project would be the last of the biggest irrigation projects in the state and would make Andhra Pradesh green and prosperous.
