Complimenting the Prime Minister for his visionary leadership, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Saturday specified six pertinent agenda points, relating to vital areas that require "utmost emphasis".
"At the outset, I would like to compliment the Hon'ble Prime Minister for his visionary leadership and NITI Aayog for specifying six pertinent agenda points for today's meeting. These points relate to vital areas requiring utmost emphasis, the Chief Minister said addressing the sixth Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a videoconference.
Addressing the meeting, the Chief Minister said that the meeting assumes great significance in the context of the economic upheaval caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. He further added that the recent budget has been most reassuring and has provided the necessary impetus to the economy.
"It is indeed imperative that during these critical times, state governments and central government should explore opportunities to engage in mengful discussions to adopt a unified approach towards policy formulation for the country's economic revival," Reddy said in his address.
Outlining the details of the first agenda point, the Chief Minister stated, "With respect to the first agenda point of Making India a Global manufacturing hub, I wish to point out that for India to become a formidable force in manufacturing, we must conduct a thorough study and analyse the factors that have contributed to the success of countries that have demonstrated good progress in the manufacturing sector."
Reddy introduced the second agenda point as reimagining agriculture deals with a sector that employs close to 60 per cent of the country's population and the state that employs nearly 62 per cent of the state's population.
He stated that the aim of policy formulation with respect to agriculture and allied sectors should be to mitigate the risks and difficulties faced by farmers.
Describing his state as predominantly agrarian in nature, Reddy talked about various pro-farmer initiatives introduced by his government.
"Specific to my state, to provide sustainable irrigation, I would like to humbly request your support for quick approval of revised cost estimates of and the timely completion of the Polavaram Irrigation Project, declared as a National project. The project is regarded as my state's lifeline and the completion of the same would contribute significantly to the increase in irrigated area, stated Reddy.
Describing the next agenda point as improving physical infrastructure, Reddy said that it is a matter of utmost importance for economic growth and poverty alleviation, adding that the importance of robust infrastructure, be it physical infrastructures such as power, roads, ports, etc. or social infrastructure such as education, healthcare, station, etc, cannot be overemphasised.
Giving out details on the agenda point, the Chief Minister stated that in the power sector, efforts should be to reduce the cost of power and encourage renewable energy, adding that improvement of the financial and operational health of the distribution utilities is essential for sustainability of the sector.
The Chief Minister also pointed that with respect to education and health sectors, keeping the socio-economic conditions of the country in mind, the Government is and will be majorly responsible for providing critical services in the areas of Health and Education. However, in order to maintain the relevance of these crucial services to common people at affordable rates, there is a need to provide access to low-cost finance to State Governments for developing social infrastructure, adding that this will enable state governments to provide quality services to its citizens at affordable rates, he remarked.
He further stated that the Andhra Pradesh government is also establishing 10,000 clinics at the village level, and for tertiary care, the state government is setting up 16 new Medical Colleges in different parts of the state and five multi-specialty hospitals in Scheduled Tribal Areas, adding that three of the 15 such colleges have already been accorded sanction by the Government of India for part funding.
"I humbly request for the Government of India to part-funding the remaining 13 medical colleges. I strongly believe that the availability of doctors and nurses in rural areas is critical for providing quality healthcare services to the people at the village level. In this context, I urge the Union Government to evolve a national policy for providing one year of compulsory Government service in rural areas for medical and nursing graduates and postgraduates. All these reforms suggested, in health and education to improve quality of life will translate into reality only when the debt to these sectors is available at very low-interest rates," stated Reddy.
Speaking about the last agenda of Improving Governance, the Chief Minister elaborated, "I feel that the solution to improved governance is decentralisation and effective use of technology. With the firm belief that service delivery should be transparent and devoid of any form of corruption or discrimination, my Government has established 15,000 Village and Ward Secretariats at village and ward levels along with volunteers with each volunteer catering to 50 houses, for providing 540 essential services to citizens.
"I believe that the services will be further improved with access to the internet to every citizen at the village level. In line with the vision of the Bharat Net project, we seek to provide internet to every citizen and the public institution at the village level. We are also establishing digital public libraries in the villages, bringing the concept of 'work from home' closer to the people by providing them uninterrupted access to quality internet in these libraries in every village, he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor