NEW DELHI: The government asserted in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that it was providing much more assistance to Andhra Pradesh than it would have got under special category status, even as opposition parties led by TDP and Congress demanded it honour all commitments made by PM Narendra Modi for the state in both letter and spirit.

Fielding home minister Rajnath Singh , HRD minister Prakash Javadekar and finance minister Piyush Goyal for the over three-hour emotive debate, the government virtually ruled out granting special category tag to Andhra despite former PM Manmohan Singh saying it was "a solemn commitment" made by him on behalf of Parliament, and he expected his successor Modi to fulfil it.

"The government is a continuing entity. Commitments made on the floor of the House must be honoured and fulfilled. I had expected my distinguished successor (Modi) to fulfil the commitments I had made after consultations with his own colleagues like Arun Jaitley (the then leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha)," Manmohan Singh said. The TDP, led by YS Chowdary and CM Ramesh, and other opposition parties stressed that Modi, after taking over as PM in 2014, had promised special category status for Andhra Pradesh at least three times.

But Rajnath Singh, asking the opposition benches why their needle was stuck in the groove of special category, said 90% of the commitments made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act , which had led to the bifurcation of Andhra and Telangana in 2014, had already been fulfilled.

"The remaining promises will also be kept... Our government will fulfil whatever commitments that have been given, not only by our PM but also former PM Manmohan Singh," he said. The home minister said the Centre was disbursing over Rs 22,000 crore as "revenue deficit grant" to Andhra Pradesh over five years till 2019-20, apart from other things, while also noting the approval given to different projects for the state. There was "a conflict" between the former PM's promise of special category and the 14th Finance Commission report, which had not made any distinction between special category and general states for devolution of funds, he said.

Goyal added, "If we were to rework all the schemes on 90:10 (ratio) as per special category status, then this revenue deficit grant of over Rs 22,000 crore would have come down by about Rs 17,500 crore."

