AP chief minister Chandrababu Naidu during Mahanadu on Tuesday

VIJAYAWADA: Continuing his attack on the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday asked as to why the state government should pay taxes to the Central government when it’s not releasing funds for various projects, particularly new capital Amaravati.

Speaking on the resolution ‘People’s Capital Amaravati — Happy City’ on the third and concluding day of TDP Mahanadu here on Tuesday, Naidu said Amaravati can generate a lot of revenue for the Centre in the form of income tax, corporate tax, and GST once it is developed into a big and planned city. “But the Centre is reluctant in helping us build the capital. When they are not giving us funds, why should we pay taxes,” he said.

Naidu said AP too needs a world class capital. “While Telangana gets most of its income from Hyderabad, Karnataka from Bengaluru, Tamil Nadu from Chennai, why should not AP develop a capital city,” he asked.

Stating that BJP national president Amit Shah’s charge that utilization certificates on funds released for Amaravati were not utilised by TDP government as baseless, Naidu presented eight sets of documents of certificates sent to the Centre and receipts received from the latter on various projects, including Amaravati.

Naidu gave a brief Powerpoint presentation on the capital works and the project costs and also replayed a speech video of the PM in which Modi is seen explaining as to how Dholera city in Gujarat will be developed into double the size of Delhi and six times bigger than Shanghai. “When the BJP wants to spend Rs 95,000 crore to build Dholera smart city in Gujarat, why is AP being discriminated by denial of funds for Amaravati,” he said.

Naidu also rubbished the Opposition’s criticism that his government was focusing only on Amaravati.

