The Hindu Business Line : Naidu's `Vision Document' promises a welfare State

EXHORTING people to strive harder as stakeholders in the development of the State, the Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Thursday presented a `Vision Document' that promises to uplift about 25 lakh people below poverty line, provide 100 per cent literacy and create a `model State' based on the principles of good governance.

Mr Naidu, who released a series of progress reports touching various sectors of economy towards the end of December 2003, said the new vision seeks to build on the Vision 2020 charted in 1997, and called upon people to be part of this framework that will enable the State to emerge as one of the most developed in the country.

Admitting that there were several constraints in the path to turn the State around and in meeting the aspirations of the people, Mr Naidu said the last eight-and-a-half years of reforms and sustained efforts to streamline the administrative process have begun to yield results.

But there is still a long way to go.

These constraints, according to Mr Naidu, include fiscal, huge population and factionalism and extremism.

However, he expressed confidence that several parameters such as industrial development, growth of the services sector, increase in literacy rate, drop in population growth rates, etc. were all pointers that AP would emerge as a model state for others to emulate.

While highlighting the development initiatives taken by his Government, where performance indicators showed that in several areas the State had achieved positive results, Mr Naidu said one cannot but continue to strive harder for better days ahead.

The only way to assess the progress was by studying the performance indicators.

When you take them sector by sector, poverty eradication, literacy rate growth, population control among other major parameters, have all achieved good results.

After a series of fiscal reforms, the State had now come to a stage of steady progress.

However, the progress was impacted to some extent due to four years of drought over the last seven years, he explained.

In the next 2-3 years, the entire delivery of services will go through a new approach where people can access Government services without stirring out of their place.

This will cut down corruption as also interaction with Government functionaries.

These projects will be complemented by an integrated call centre that would take complaints and address people's grievances.

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Naidu's `Vision Document' promises a welfare State