Special Category Status Not Implemented Despite Assurance: YS Jagan At All Party-Meeting

New Delhi: Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and YSR Congress president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has once again brought to the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the special category status assured to the state has not been implemented. He was speaking at an all-party meeting at the Parliament Library building in New Delhi on Wednesday, convened by the Prime Minister. The conference was organized with a five-point agenda: ways to achieve better results for Parliament, One Nation - One Election, formation of Nav Bharat on the 75th Independence Day, initiatives to mark the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and the development of aspirational (backward) districts.

This all-party meeting was attended by several party presidents. At the meeting, CM YS Jagan expressed his views on the agenda. Supporting the agenda, 'One Nation - One Election', he also proposed amending the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and the Public Reform Act to strengthen the party's defection law. In honor of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, he batted for the strengthening of schemes in the health sector and National level education.

CM YS Jagan's speech at the meeting:

“I have great respect and devotion to parliamentary values and traditions. I consider Parliament to be a temple of democracy. As the president of the fourth largest party in the Lok Sabha with 22 members, I present you with a fundamental question. With the support of the ruling and opposition parties, the parliament has vowed to give the new Andhra Pradesh a special status as a precondition in February 2014 before the bifurcation of the state. If this is not fulfilled in five years, how long will people still believe in Parliament? Against the wishes of the majority of the people, the bifurcation took place. How does Parliament justify its inability to meet the pledge? To maintain the public's trust and respect, it is imperative that every assurance made by Parliament must be exercised in due course. Then the aggrieved parties will stop agitating in the House, ”said CM YS Jagan.

"I bring to you the necessity of strengthening the implementation of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. Three of the MPs who won from our party in the last Lok Sabha have not only defected to the TDP but also publicly participated in their meetings and events. Also, in the last assembly, 23 MLAs of our party have been lured by the TDP with money. Some of them even became ministers and abused their power. But in these two cases, the members of both Houses of Parliament have not been disqualified.

This is not just flouting defective legislation but also disregarding public judgment. Therefore, the Presiding Officer should resolve the petitions relating to the defections of the elected members of Parliament and the Legislature within 90 days and I, thereby propose to include the appropriate provision in the Tenth Schedule. Also, a clause should be included in the law so that political parties, including MPs, MLAs, and MLCs, who defected without resigning from other parties can be disqualified from contesting elections. We, therefore, wish to resolve these issues without delay, so that the House can achieve better results and, above all, increase the credibility of Parliament.

On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, Prime Minister should announce the strengthening of schemes on the national level. Strong programs should be announced to increase the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) and reduce the cost of treatments and national level education. Our country has the second lowest GER of 25% in higher education compared to BRICS countries. Due to lack of financial stability and poverty, many children are away from higher education. Also, the government expenditure in the education sector is only 3.5 percent of GDP. This is the lowest of the remaining BRICS countries. I appreciate the foresight of the Prime Minister, who has launched schemes like Ayushman Bharat to promote the health sector in the country. However, we have to travel a lot towards this.

We spend only 1.3% of our GDP on healthcare. This is the lowest among BRICS countries. On the other hand, the country's health expenditure on medicine is 65 percent of the total expenditure, which is the highest among the BRICS countries. Therefore, we are urging the Prime Minister to announce plans to increase GER nationally and to reduce the cost of medical care for our country which is experiencing rapid economic growth.

'One Nation - One Election' proposal is a bold initiative. In our state, the parliament and the state legislature have been together since 1999. Fundamentally, the formula reduces election costs and will increase voter participation by holding elections simultaneously for five years. Disruption in governance is also reduced. Also, by-elections in the state will give the ruling party the power to regulate the officials and the police. So I support the 'One Nation - One Election' proposal. However, the legislatures of different states are at different times. The Prime Minister is confident that the federal structure of the constitution will create a mechanism to implement the proposal," concluded CM YS Jagan.

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