Hyderabad: The en mass resignation of Parliamentarains from Andhra Pradesh will bring pressure on the Central government to grant special status for the state, former chief secretary IYR Krishna Rao said.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, he said the mass resignations will bring the issue to national attention and thus force the Central government to act. He called on all the 25 Parliamentarians from AP to put aside their political affiliations and resign for the common good of the state. The former CS also stated that the TDP government is focused on development of a single region. "Since the capital city will come up near Guntur, the high court can be established in Rayalaseema for the overall development of the state," he said.

He was speaking at the conference hosted by Jana Chaitanya Vedika and attended among others by former high court judge P Lakshmana Reddy and Jana Chaitanya Vedika state president V Lakshmana Reddy. Speaking on the occasion, Justice Lakshmana Reddy said the issue of Special Status for AP was announced in the Rajya Sabha by the previous government and the same was approved by the Central cabinet. A few states were granted special status by a mere approval from the central cabinet and hence an amendment of the law is not required to grant the same to AP, he added.

Jaya Prakash Narayan and IYR Krishna Rao

Meanwhile, V Lakshmana Reddy said that the demands are not new but are those promised by former prime minister and the AP Bifurcation Act. "Therefore chief minister Chandrababu Naidu should change his stance and join the struggle for special status," he said.

In a related development Krishna Rao strongly objected to comments made by Lok Satta founder Jaya Prakash Narayan at the "Joint Fact Finding Committee". The latter had said that the Central government cannot ask for accounts of the funds granted for a special project or scheme. Replying to those comments, Krishna Rao said that the Central government has the right to ask for accounts of the funds granted by it.