YSR Congress Party MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy made a impassioned plea to extend the special status accorded to Andhra Pradesh to 20 years from five years.

In his maiden speech after being elected MP in the just-concluded elections, Mekapati said, "I request the government to kindly ensure all the promises made in AP reorganization act-2014 along with the assurances given by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh."

He added, "We request the Government of India to extend the special status given to Andhra Pradesh to 20 years instead of 5 years. Both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh should be given incentives for rapid development."

He also took the opportunity to speak about the power crisis that has gripped the country.

He pointed out that most states in India are facing acute power shortage . Even the capital, Delhi is facing shortage of power. This crisis, he asserted, we have to overcome.

He added that the reasons for this outage are shortage of Coal and natural Gas. For the last three years, no additional extraction of coal has taken place. Power projects started on the basis of coal, are now facing a problem. Similarly, there is a shortage of natural gas. For example on the Krishna Godavari Basin, except one company, three companies are yet to produce gas. Why isn't the Government taking action against them, he questioned.

He also requested the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take necessary action against those parties that are failing to implement their promises mentioned in the manifestos after coming into power.

"On behalf of my party, I would like to assure our support to the government on every matter concerning public good," he said.

-Siva@Sakshipost