AP CM YS Rajasekhar Reddy set to face first drought
0 commentsAs per official figures recorded till July 30, there’s a deficit of 49% in total rainfall. Region-wise, Telangana recorded a deficit of 54%, Rayalaseema 46% and Andhra 36%.Out of the 23 districts, only three districts, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam received ‘normal’ rainfall. Six districts, Krishna, Guntur, Hyderabad, Medak, Warangal and Nalgonda received ‘scanty’ rainfall while it was ‘deficit’ in the remaining 14.
The rainfall is described as ‘normal’ when it is plus 19% to minus 19%, ‘deficit’ between minus 20% to minus 59% and ‘scanty’ when it is minus 60% to minus 99%. As per the Union agriculture department, “Drought connotes a situation of water shortage for human, cattle and agriculture, resulting in economic losses primarily in agriculture sector.” According to the agriculture officials, although the southwest monsoon occurs between June 1 and September 30, any rain after July will not really benefit the agriculture sector.
“Any rain from now on till September will not greatly alter the crops’ situation with regard to foodgrains,” said one official. In fact, the state can benefit by declaring drought as it can be eligible for central funds. Saturday’s meeting will be attended by officials of the agriculture, horticulture, power, revenue, municipal administration and urban development, animal husbandry and rural development departments.
State officials said the best course available for the state would be to immediately declare a drought, take central aid and advise farmers to go for alternative crops as advised by various central agricultural agencies. If the state declares a drought, it will be the first time under Rajasekhara Reddy that it will happen so.
Chandrababu Naidu vowed to finish off Praja Rajyam Party
0 commentsAccording to party sources, Naidu disclosed that apart from Devender Goud and E Peddi Reddy, former ministers Kothapalli Subbarayudu and Kotagiri Vidyadhara Rao, East Godavari district former TDP president Jyotula Nehru and others will switch their loyalties to TDP. All of them joined PRP just before the Assembly elections but none of them managed to get elected to the House.
Naidu told his party leaders that inviting all former leaders back to party would strengthen the party and ultimately lead to a situation where only the Congress and TDP would remain as the main players in State politics. “Naidu told me that if all the TDP leaders returned to party, the PRP would shut its shop and TDP can give fight to the Congress,’’ a senior TDP leader from Rangareddy district told Express.
When asked about their opinions on the entry of Devender Goud into the party, Pargi MLA K Hariswar Reddy left the choice to Naidu. “You are taking back Devender Goud feeling that TDP would be strengthened in the region. I have no objection,’’ Hariswar Reddy informed Naidu.
As there were repor ts that Hariswar Reddy would oppose the entry of Devender Goud, former minister E Peddi Reddy rang up Hariswar Reddy and convinced him.However, Hariswar Reddy reminded his close aides that Devender forfeited his deposit in the recent Assembly elections.
Naidu also wanted the opinions of Karimnagar leaders on the re-entry of Peddi Reddy into the party. According to sources, both the leaders will join TDP next month.However, party sources said Naidu did not give any assurance to Devender Goud such as nominating him for Rajya Sabha.
TRS Party Secretary General and Medak MP Vijayashanti may quit TRS
0 commentsVijayashanti is now having consultations with her supporters and rebel leaders from the TRS.
In the last general elections, Vijayashanti won from Medak Lok Sabha constituency with an impressive margin.She is confident that she won the seat based on her popularity. With the support of the Congress, she thinks, her victory is certain.
Meanwhile, senior TRS leader Nayani Narasimha Reddy, Medak district unit president Raghunandhan and former MLC, R Satyanarayana demanded that Vijayashanti should resign from her Lok Sabha seat and quit the party. They took strong objection to her anti-party activities.
They also demanded that she should explain to the people why she joined the TRS in the first place and now moving closer to the Congress.
The TRS leaders said if she did not quit as MP, they would obstruct her tours in the district. In an informal chat with reporters, TRS legislature party leader E Rajendar said that all the party leaders and sympathisers have opposed the entry of Vijayashanti into the party.
Telugu Desam Party demands withdrawal of Aganist Nagam Janardhan Reddy
0 commentsJanardhan Reddy first raised the issue during zero hour and alleged that false cases were being slapped on him under instructions from the chief minister’s office. Sensing the belligerent mood of the TDP members, speaker N Kiran Kumar Reddy adjourned the House for tea break. When the House re-assembled, he took up the discussion on budget and asked Congress member S Shailajanath to resume his speech.
TDP MLAs were up on their feet and raised the issue again. Deputy speaker N Manohar had a tough time in restoring order as Congress members resorted to counter attacks. At this stage, legislative affairs minister K Rosaiah intervened and said that Janardhan Reddy could move a privilege motion to raise the issue.
At his stage, TDP leader G Muddukrishnama Naidu entered into a heated argument with Rosaiah while pleading with the Speaker to allow him to make his point. A visibly angry Rosaiah chided him and said, "You should be ashamed of your behaviour." The minister said that it was not possible to withdraw the case before the completion of the probe into the case.
According to the complaint, one P Bangaraiah accused Janardhan Reddy of abusing him by referring to his caste when he pleaded with the MLA not to obstruct the social audit work.
But Janardhan Reddy talking to media on Tuesday said that this was yet another attempt by the chief minister to arm-twist TDP members. He said on July 22 he had gone to participate in a social audit programme of NREG works at Telkapally village in his Nagarkurnool constituency as an observer. The social audit was ordered following a complaint lodged by him on irregularities in implementation of the programme.
While the social audit was on, Congress activists created a ruckus and pulled down the shamiana. He along with the officials and party workers went into the office of mandal parishad development officer and waited there till 6 pm for the issue to subside before going back to Nagarkurnool and next day a case was lodged against him.
He said the entire programme was recorded on video. Police and the authorities can see and decide what had happened. Janardhan Reddy said in the last session the CM threatened him that he would not allow him to enter the Assembly. "At that point, I thought he (CM) would try to defeat me in the polls but never imagined that he would encourage his people to falsely implicate me in such cases."
YSR not ready to face referendum Challenge Telugu Desam Party
0 commentsThe issue figured in the assembly towards the end of the day when TDP deputy leader M Narsimhlu raised the issue. Reacting to it, legislative affairs minister K Rosaiah said that it was not possible to ask the election commission to conduct referendum on the credibility of chief minister and opposition leader since there was no such provision in the Constitution.
In his inimitable style Rosaiah tried to divert the issue by referring to the observations made by Naidu on the dependability of electronic voting machines. He said as chief minister, Naidu had earlier praised the EVMs and said that it was being followed across the globe. Now that he had suffered a debacle for the second consecutive time, he was blaming the EVMs.
Later talking to media, Narsimhulu said that Rosaiah was not present when the issue cropped up in the house on Monday. It was the CM who had thrown the challenge that Naidu should agree for a referendum on credibility factor. When Naidu accepted the challenge with a rider that three other issues, corruption, governance and political killings during TDP and Congress rule in last five years be included for referendum, YSR accepted the amendment and said the loser should quit politics. Naidu accepted the condition and chief minister said that he would indicate the dates.
So he wanted to know the status of the challenge and if the government was serious about it. The reply of the legislative affairs minister indicates that the government was now running away from the issue, he added.
AP CM Piped Gas to all Households in 4 Cities in 3 Years
0 commentsDr Reddy asked the Bhagyanagar Gas Limited, which has been awarded the City Gas Distribution network for Kakinada, to come out with a concrete action plan over the next fortnight for providing piped gas connections to all households and other consumers in Hyderabad within 3 years.
The Chief Minister assured all help and support to the company or consortiums in this regard.
He held a meeting in this connection with the departments and Bhagyanagar Gas Company executives today. ’’The Company Executives were told to come with an action plan within 15 days’’, a release from Chief Minister’s office here said.
Dr Reddy asked to facilitate expeditious processing of the City Gas Distribution network proposals by the bidders in the State. The State Government have appointed INCAP as the single window clearance agency for natural gas distribution network in the State, the release said.
Andhra Pradesh CM seeks one million LPG connections from Centre
0 commentsThe Chief Minister said there was considerable demand in the state for new connections.The state Government was ready to take up as many ’’Deepam’’ connections as possible,he said. He held a review meeting on cooking gas connections and kerosene distribution with the concerned minister and officials at the Secretariat.
’’There are now 1.14 crore LPG Connections across the State: 1.14 Crore against 1.85 crore households as per census and the average annual increase is 5 lakhs. ’’Deepam’’ Connections have been 1.70 lakhs annually over the last five years on an average. There was a need to step up the LPG connections in the State’’, he said.
The department would be permitted to re-appropriate so as to meet the demands of ’’Deepam’’ connections during this year, the Chief Minister said.
Tesion Situation in Assembly as TDP,Congress Stage Dharnas
0 commentsPolice had a tough time in restoring order as the Congress and TDP members exhibited their lung power to out-shout each other, even as police personnel guarding the Assembly pleaded with them to leave the place forthwith.
When electronic media tried to shoot the incident the police initially objected, saying the media had been barred from covering any protest within the Assembly premises.After repeated appeals, policemen remained mute spectators to mediapersons getting bytes from the TDP and the Congress MLAs who were eager to oblige to drive home their viewpoints.
PRP Chiranjeevi,Lok Satta Jayprakash Deferred with CM and Naidu
0 commentsThe Chief Minister and the main Opposition leader have used the floor of the House as a platform to thrown challenge at each other on four issues on Monday. These four issues are: Administrative qualities, Corruption, Reliability and Murder politics.
Both the leaders have agreed on conducting referendum on these four issues and quit political life who ever is lost in the referendum.Reacting to the challenges by these two leaders, both Chiranjeevi and Jayaprakash Narayana have sought to advise them to restrain from misusing the Assembly for personal agenda.
While Chiranjeevi said he was dismissing the challenge between the two, he wanted them to go for such an open challenge on issues that are concerning the welfare of the people. He wanted the two leaders to compete with each other on doing something good for the people.
On his part, Jayaprakash Narayana ridiculed the challenge and said the Assembly and politics are not the own properties of Naidu and Dr Reddy. He wanted to know on what basis both the Chief Minister and the Opposition leader were talking about referendum, which was not there in the Constitution.
Going by the proceedings of the Assembly on Monday, it was felt that the State needs more Chiranjeevis and Jayaprakash Narayanas who have concern for the people and certainly not Dr Reddys and Mr Naidus.
CPI will launch a movement on price rise from August 1
0 commentsNeither the farmer, who produce most of the essential commodities, nor the consumer were benefited with the hike in prices and production, respectively, and it was only the traders and middlemen who cashed in on the situation, he said talking to newspersons here on Monday. The State and Central governments had completely failed in controlling the prices and their attitude only helped the traders.
Citing an example Mr. Ramakrishna stated that the State had achieve the best ever paddy production last year including a bumper crop in rabi season too. But, the farmers had to settle for a price of Rs. 800 to 850 per quintal as against Rs. 930 fixed by the Centre as minimum support price as the procurement agency, Food Corporation of India, refused to purchase the produce on the pretext that the godowns were not empty.
The connivance of traders and government machinery was as it was the traders who purchased the produce at lower rates. After milling the paddy they were selling the rice nothing less than Rs. 30 a kg now and making huge profits. The CPI leader also flayed the remarks of Civil Supplies Minister J. Krishna Rao, who had suggested the people to go for low quality rice. Even in the case of red gram dal the government had played into the hands of traders. Against the annual requirement of 2.4 lakh tonnes in the State the home production was 2.1 lakh tonnes sufficient for about 10 months. However, the consumers were experiencing shortage and price rise of the commodity for the last four months.
TDP Chandrababu unhappy at PRP Chiranjeevi equating Congress
0 commentsHe faulted both the leaders for throwing challenges and making counter-challenges on the floor of the House. Immediately after the Assembly adjourned for the day, Naidu told Chiranjeevi in the Assembly lobbies that it was Rajasekhara Reddy who had first challenged him to a referendum on the credibility of the Congress and the TDP.
“I never challenged Rajasekhara Reddy to a referendum. Your comments were unwarranted,’’ Naidu told Chiranjeevi. Naidu, later, told mediapersons that he had explained how the referendum issue was taken up by Rajasekhara Reddy. Chiranjeevi moved away when Naidu was interacting with the media. Naidu wanted the government to conduct direct election to the mayoral post. “Let Rajasekhara Reddy contest against me in the GHMC mayoral election and take it as a referendum,
Naidu told reporters. Speaking to reporters, TDP leader N Janardhan Reddy alleged that Chiranjeevi never found fault with the Congress. Wanting the chief minister to hold the referendum at an early date, Reddy said that only 36.7 per cent people voted for the Congress while 67.3 per cent voted against it in the Assembly elections. The TDP would win in the referendum, he added. “The chief minister should stick to his challenge on referendum,’’ said another TDP leader, M Narasimhulu.
AP Cm rules out ST cut,asks Chandrababu naidu to change mindset
0 comments’’It is unfortunate that Mr Naidu, who has totally neglected the state-owned Road Transport Corporation, is now talking about protecting RTC. It is the ruling Congress which is responsible for the RTC’s turnaround. RTC workers know who took care of the RTC’s interests,’’ the Chief Minister said intervening during the Question Hour after the Opposition members staged separate walkouts.
After praising state chief electoral officer I V Subba Rao for holding free and fair elections, the Opposition leader, after the poll drubbing, was expressing doubts over the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines, the Chief Minister said.
The Government needed funds to implement the ongoing welfare schemes including Rajiv Aarogyasree and Rs two per kg-rice scheme, he pointed out, adding the TDP had aligned with major parties and made ’’all free’’ promises and even distributed fake ATM cards.
Justifying reduction in tax on aviation turbine fuel to make the international airport viable, Dr Reddy said sales tax on diesel here was the lowest in the country.The government had reduced the sales tax on cooking gas from 12 per cent to four per cent thereby benefitting one crore people and absorbing the entire hike of Rs 50 effected by the Centre on gas price earlier, he added.
Earlier, Civil Supplies Minister J Krishna Rao ruled out reduction in sales tax, contending the tax on diesel was only 22.25 per cent in Andhra Pradesh as against 25 per cent in Karnataka, 23 per cent in Mahrashtra, 24 per cent in Gujarat and 24.94 per cent in Kerala.
YSR,Chandrababu challenge each other to referendum
0 commentsAccepting the challenge, Naidu, the Telugu Desam Party chief, dared the chief minister to hold a referendum on credibility, governance, corruption and political murders.YSR, as the chief minister is popularly known by his initials, accepted Naidu’s conditions. While the war of words and the challenges thrown by both the leaders generated a lot of heat in the house, other parties intervened to oppose the idea of referendum.
It all started during the debate on the state budget when Congress party whip Shailajanath remarked that Naidu would lose his deposit if he faces YSR in a direct election.Reacting immediately to this remark, TDP legislators rose from their seats and said their leader was ready to fight to prove who is the best chief minister.
Amid the uproar, YSR intervened to throw a challenge at Naidu to face a referendum on their credibility. "Let us hold a referendum on my credibility versus Mr Naidu’s credibility. The one who loses should retire from politics," said YSR.
Naidu was chief minister from 1995 to 2004 while YSR took over after the Congress’ victory in the 2004 polls to the state assembly and retained power in the 2009 elections.Naidu was quick to accept the challenge. "I am ready to accept this challenge but the referendum should be held on credibility, corruption, governance and political murders," he said.
While YSR had made credibility the main issue in the recent elections, Naidu often targets him for "rampant corruption, misgovernance and murders of political rivals" during the Congress’ rule.The TDP chief also threw a challenge to YSR to hold direct polls to the post of mayor of Greater Hyderabad. "There are 55 lakh (5,500,000) voters in the city, who are politically conscious. They will decide who is the best chief minister," said Naidu.
YSR responded by saying he was ready for a referendum across the state on four points - credibility, corruption, governance and political murders.There was utter pandemonium in the house amid "war cries" between TDP and Congress legislators, who were seen gesticulating at and challenging one another.
However, the intervention by Praja Rajyam Party president Chiranjeevi and Lok Satta legislator Jayaprakash Narayan dampened the heat."The challenges and the counter challenges by the two leaders are distracting attention from the real issues of people. Let us use the same spirit to solve people’s problems," said actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi while dismissing the idea of referendum.
Jayaprakash Narayan wanted to know from YSR and Naidu the article of the Constitution under which they propose to hold a referendum.Meanwhile, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leader Harish Rao demanded that the referendum be held on the demand for separate statehood to Telangana region.
Amid the uproar, Naidu wanted to say something but Speaker Kiran Kumar Reddy adjourned the house for the day.
AP CM Presents a dream picture of Hyderabad (LPG)
0 commentsReiterating that natural resources, including petroleum and gas, were the nation’s property, Rajasekhara Reddy today appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to allocate reasonable share of gas extracted from the Krishna-Godavari Basin to Andhra Pradesh.
He, at the same time, thanked Singh for assuring that the final decision on gas supply and price was the Central Government’s discretion but not any private contractors’.
The State Government has constituted a joint-venture company for supply of gas to households in Hyderabad.The efforts are being made to supply gas through a gas pipeline network in public-private partnership.The government is also planning to establish about 1,000 CNG stations in Hyderabad apart from taking up an infrastructure development and beautification project to develop Hyderabad into an international city with an investment of about Rs 20,000 crore.
During his visit to Visakhapatnam today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appreciated the developmental activities taken up by the Andhra Pradesh Government and congratulated it on the occasion of Hyderabad being named the `most investor-friendly city’ after Ludhiana by the World Bank and the Reserve Bank of India.
On the occasion, the chief minister announced that the State Government was also planning to develop Anakapalle, Bheemili and Visakhapatnam as a `Golden Triangle’ for industrial and tourism development.He said that proposals had been prepared to develop Visakhapatnam into an international port city.
No Action against Minister asks Telugu Desam Party
0 commentsAddressing a press conference here, Senior TDP Leaders G Muddukrishnamma Naidu and R Chandrasekar Reddy alleged Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had also ensured that there was no legal action against Congress MP M Jaganatham who ’’slapped’’ a bank officer.
’’Law has not been allowed to take its own course in cases involving Congressmen,’’ they charged.
On the other hand, the Congress government was harrassing TDP Dalit Legislator T V Rama Rao by ’’foisting’’ a case on ’’trumped up’’ charge of attempting to rape two Kerala girls studying in the nursing college run by him, they alleged.
They also questioned the Congress government for holding a training programme for Congress MLAs at the state-owned Marri Channa Reddy Human Resources Development Centre and wanted to know whether the government would throw open the facility for the TDP and other parties too.
TRS will contest the coming elections to GHMC on its own
0 commentsAddressing the party workers, he exhorted the workers to strive hard to strengthen the movement for separate Telangana State at a time when the ruling Congress as also the main Opposition Telugu Desam Party were trying to weaken it.
The TRS received a severe drubbing in the simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Assembly contesting the polls as a constituent of the TDP-led four party alliance.Mr Rao termed as ’’unscientific’’ reservation of wards announced by the State Government for the GHMC Elections.
Senior TRS leader N Narasimha Reddy made it clear the party would not not have any truck with the TDP, which had allegedly worked against the TRS in the general election.TRS General Secretary Vijayashanthi, who had called on Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy two days ago to seek funds for development of her home Medak Lok Sabha Constituency, was conspicous by her absence at today’s meeting.
Finance Minister Roaiah Commitment to make Hyderabad World Class City
0 commentsAhead of the civic elections in the State capital, Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister K Rosaiah today reiterated in the State Assembly the Congress Government’s commitment to make Hyderabad a ’world-class city’, by completing ongoing infrastructure projects and taking up new ones.
Mr Rosaiah, who presented his 15th Budget in the State Assembly, a record for any Finance Minister in the country, said the State Government was expediting construction of eight-lane Access Controlled Expressway at an estimated cost of Rs 4,607 crore.
The Centre had sanctioned 268 projects costing over Rs 12,523.70 crore under various sub-components of the flagship Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) with special emphasis on water supply, sewerage, transport and integrated development of slums, including housing, infrastructure projects and solid waste management.
The State Government had approved the ’’Maulana Abul Kalam Hyderabad Sujala Sravanthi’’ scheme to draw water from river Godavari in three phases for Greater Hyderabad, he said, announcing Rs 250 crore in this year’s budget for the first phase of the project, costing Rs 3,375 crore.
He allocated Rs 37 crore for improving the quality of water supply in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.Pointing out that 1.83 lakh groups of the poor women in 7,040 slums had been organised into Self Help Groups (SHG) under ’Indira Kranthi Patham Urban’ and provided a credit of Rs 843 crore during 2008-09 as bank linkages.
Communist Party of India may joins with TDP,PRP:Narayana
0 commentsThe Communist Party of India (CPI) Andhra Pradesh Unit Secretary K Narayana today did not rule out entering into truck with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) in the ensuing Greater Hyderabad (GH) Municipal Elections.
Addressing a press conference here, he said local issues were going to play a vital role in the coming GH Municipal Corporation elections and that is why more funds had been allocated for it in the state Budget, presented in the Assembly today.
Stating that the party’s foremost goal was to defeat the Congress and the BJP, he said for this we could join hands with other like minded parties.Referring to the state Budget, Dr Narayana said the funds allocated for irrigation were not sufficient. Even they were not sufficient to clear the dues pending for contractors, he said.
KOvvur MLA TV Rama Rao No Health Problem : GGH
0 commentsThe Government General Hospital authorities here today denied the charge of Kovvur Telugu Desam Party MLA T V Rama Rao, arrested in connection with alleged attempt to molest two Kerala girls studying in the nursing college run by him that doctors had stated that he was in good health condition out of fear of losing their jobs.
Reacting to the MLA’s charge, GGH Superintendent M B R Sarma told UNI ’’only an ecocardiogram will give the correct position.’’ ’’On his admission yesterday, necessary tests were conducted.Only after ascertaining that his health condition was stable, we gave green signal to the police to take him back to the Central jail in Rajahmundry,’’ Dr Sarma said.
Rao was shifted to the hospital here yesterday in the morning after he complained of chest pain to officials in the Rajahmundry Central prison.The Dalit TDP leader was arrested following a complaint by five female students of the TVR College of Nursing in Nidadavolu before Home Minister P Sabita Reddy in Hyderabad that Rao had allegedly tried to ’’sexually assault’’ two of them.
The girls also complained to the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) and State Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and Governor N D Tiwari, seeking justice be rendered to them.A case was registered against the MLA by the local police for alleged rape and murder of a girl on June 18.
More misery in store for TRS?
0 commentsThe episode comes in the wake of rumours that that the Congress has been trying to attract prominent leaders from the Opposition parties. Chandrasekhar Rao, who had been keeping away from the public eye for fear of ``Ashada masam’’ had stepped into the Telangana Bhavan only yesterday with the arrival of the new month.
The grapevine has it that Vijayashanti too shares Rao’s sentiments on Sravana Masam, in that she regards it as auguring well for new beginnings! When the actress, who was earlier in the BJP and later launched her own outfit -- Talli Telangana, merged the latter with the TRS, party chief Chandrasekhar Rao had famously declared that Vijayashanti was his ninth sister, as he had eight already.
As for today’s visit, Vijayashanti has urged mediapersons not to read much into her meeting with the chief minister.``I called on him Minister only for sanctioning of some works in the Medak Lok Sabha segment, and also thanked him for okaying railway projects in the segment,’’ she said. The MP is said to have urged Reddy to allocate 10 TMC water to the district under the proposed Pranahita-Chevella project, and to accord top priority to the development works in her constituency.
She maintained that she had no plans to shift allegiance to another party. “If at all there are such plans, I will inform you,’’ she told the media at Secretariat.When she met the Chief Minister Congress MLA T Jayaprakash Reddy relatives too accompanied her.
Rosaiah presents tax-free budget
0 commentsIn his budget presentation on the first day of the second session of the new Assembly, Finance Minister K Rosaiah gave top priority to ongoing programmes — with Jalayagnam getting Rs 17,800 crore while welfare schemes, including Rs 2-a-kg rice, fee reimbursement for students and free power to farmers have been allocated Rs 5,532 crore.
The finance minister was optimistic that the State would achieve nine percent economic growth, with power generation registering 12 percent.‘‘We have tried to ensure that no priority sector and welfare programmes of the Government suffer for shortage of funds,’’ he said.
In his 30-minute speech, Rosaiah referred to implementation of two poll promises made by the Congress — increased duration of free power supply from 7 hours to 9 and enhancement of cheaper rice quota from 4 kg to 6 kg per month per person.
Amidst protest from the Opposition benches, he said: ‘‘Though our friends in the Opposition made several attractive promises, true to our tradition, we made only two important poll promises and have implemented both of them.’’ Besides the projects proposed under Jalayagnam, the finance minister announced the implementation of new irrigation projects to create an additional ayacut of 24.5 lakh acres after the restrictions imposed by the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal were lifted.
The State Government has proposed taking up new projects in recognition of the growing aspirations of the people of Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Prakasam, Nellore and the four Rayalaseema districts, and to ensure equitable distribution of Krishna waters.
Rosaiah described the years 2004-09, the first term of Rajasekhara Reddy government, as a ‘golden period’ for the farming sector. As against the national target of four percent for agriculture, AP achieved a growth rate of 6.4 percent, the highest in the State for any five-year period.
The finance minister said that the State Government had pleaded with the 13th Finance Commission during its visit to the State for greater flow of funds to progressive States like Andhra Pradesh on the grounds that the latter had contributed substantially to economic growth and the food security of the country.
Rosaiah claimed that the considerable increase in allocations to the Central Government’s AIBP and JNNURM programmes in the Union budget for 2009-10 would help Andhra Pradesh fill the ‘‘gap’’. There was every reason to believe that at least two to three major irrigation projects of the State would be included in the list of national projects. The State would also benefit a lot due to the 144-percent hike in allocation to the NREGP, he maintained.
The finance minister assured continuation of the Pavala Vaddi scheme, the implementation of the Abhaya Hastham pension scheme to women members (aged 60 and above) of self-help groups, completion of programmes proposed under Indiramma, extension of post-matric scholarship and tuition fee reimbursement to other economically backward students whose parents earn up to Rs 1 lakh per annum, and additional power generation of 10,992 MW (the present capacity is 12,427 MW) over the next five years.
Finance minister K Rosaiah Budget allocation to be trimmed
0 commentsThe budget size is likely to be Rs 98,000 crore of which Rs 41,000 will be planned expenditure and Rs 63,252 under non-plan expenditure. The deficit is likely to be over Rs 14,000 crore. Irrigation would continue to get the lion’s share of the budget which is expected to be around Rs 16,000-Rs 18,000 crore followed by other flagship projects like housing and pension scheme.