Andhra CM Naidu presents Centre with his long wish list

Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu came calling to the Capital with a long wish list - from short-term funds to additional capex support for infrastructure, money for the capital city of Amaravati and a new oil refinery - suggesting that some of the announcements be made in the Union Budget.
Sources in AP govt described the meeting between PM Modi and Naidu as “very positive” but refrained from stating whether there was any demand for a package.
“The CM highlighted how Andhra is grappling with the repercussions of the unfair and unjust bifurcation of 2014. Additionally, the miserable governance of the previous administration marked by malice, corruption and misgovernance has dealt a more deleterious blow to the state than the bifurcation,” the sources said.
During his meeting with the PM, Naidu sought Centre’s “financial hand holding” to tide over the crisis and focus on investments in specific projects and backward regions. He argued that there was “no other way to face such a challenge”.
The list of items for which Naidu has sought the Centre’s “cooperation” runs into several pages - covering short term assistance as well as an additional allocation under the Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment, meant to build core infrastructure. Besides, project-specific support to build the govt complex and trunk infrastructure in Amaravati, chosen by Naidu to be the capital, the Polavaram irrigation project and development of Duggirajupatnam port also figure in the list.
Naidu also met home minister Amit Shah, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, oil minister Hardeep Puri, power minister Manohar Lal, agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and 16th Finance Commission chairman Arvind Panagariya and had specific demands from each of them.
For instance, when he met Puri, he demanded that state run BPCL set up an oil refinery in the state, and suggested that an announcement by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman would “augur well” for increasing the refinery capacity in the country. During his meeting with Shah, Naidu flagged division of assets with Telangana as an issue, along with bifurcation of several institutions and resolution of financial issues between APGENCO, the power generation company, and Telangana power discoms. Naidu suggested to Manohar Lal that Vizag Kakinada should be promoted as a green hydrogen hub and sought Gadkari’s help for road projects.