Finance minister Arun Jaitley, on Friday, said that the central government is ready to give the special package to Andhra Pradesh as a substitute to special category status, which was demanded by Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu for the state. He said that the central government has been waiting endlessly to extend the needed support to the state.

This comes after Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has quit the NDA coalition and resorted to initiating a motion of no-confidence in the Lok Sabha. 

“The modalities of giving the special package were agreed way back in September 2016 but the state government only in January this year suggested a change in route of receiving funds, to which the Centre agreed but has not heard from it ever since,” said the finance minister.

Jaitely has defended the central government saying that there is no delay on its part. It is Andhra Pradesh which is not accepting the support and making an issue out of the matter. He added that special category status has been discontinued with the implementation of the 14th Finance Commission.  

Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated in 2014 to create Telangana and has been since demanding extra financial assistance from the center to cope with the problems posed by the bifurcation.

TDP had followed a step-by-step process to part ways from the NDA coalition. It withdrew two of its ministers from the cabinet in order to pressurise the government, all in vain. Finally, the party decided to quit the coalition.