Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das said the agenda for the Southern Zonal Council (SZC) meeting scheduled to be chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Tirupati on March 4 has a total of 41 items, including 15 related to the A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014 (APRA) and 26 regular ones.
The regular items are water resources, energy, medical and health, agriculture, industries and commerce, IT and communications, municipal administration and urban development, and subjects in the purview of the Home Department, the Chief Secretary said, and instructed officials to furnish up-to-date information on issues arising from APRA in order to submit the same to the Central government for appropriate action.
In a review meeting on arrangements for the SZC meeting, Mr. Aditya Nath Das said the 15 items related to the State mainly include the demand for Special Category Status, funding of Polavaram project, development of Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor, tax incentives, establishment of an integrated steel plant in Kadapa district, Central support for the capital city project, metro rail projects in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, and upgrading of Visakhapatnam and Tirupati airports.
The Chief Secretary said Chief Ministers, Ministers, Chief Secretaries, and top officials of Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry would participate in the deliberations. Top administrators of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands are special invitees.
