State has to be put back on track; Cong has left it in a mess: Naidu

Andhra Pradesh has to be put back on track and the TDP-BJP government headed by him will make all concerted efforts to achieve the objective, according to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

He was addressing the media here on Thursday evening in Andhra University after the State Cabinet met for the first time. The Cabinet meeting, which began at 11.30 p.m, lasted almost seven hours.

He said “it is a historic occasion as the State Cabinet is meeting here for the first time in a city which I like immensely.” He said the TDP legislature party meeting, which elected him the leader, was held in Tirupati in the Rayalaseema region and the swearing-in ceremony was held between Vijayawada and Guntur last Sunday.

“Now, we have held the first Cabinet meet here in the north-coastal AP. We want to send a signal to all the regions that there would be balanced and integrated development of the State and we will choose the path of decentralisation,” he said.

He said the Cabinet had approved the farm loan waiver scheme, the NTR Sujala Sravanthi scheme for provision of mineral water to all villages and towns in the State and enhancement of retirement age of employees from 58 to 60. He said the Cabinet had also decided to close down all belt (unauthorised liquor) shops in the State and the excise policy would be revamped after studying the policies of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

He said a committee had been appointed to work out the guidelines for the farm loan waiver scheme and the report would be submitted before June 23 and the follow-up steps would be taken without causing any inconvenience to farmers for kharif loans.

Similarly, there may be some issues in implementing the retirement age enhancement decision, as there were many issues to be settled in allocation of employees to AP and Telangana. “In fact, the whole exercise of bifurcation was carried out in a most arbitrary and undemocratic manner by the Congress Government and we now have to clear many problems arising out of such hurried bifurcation. The Congress has made a mess of it. We have to clear it now,” he said.

The Chief Minister said the problems facing the State were many and complex. “We are staring at a deficit of more than ₹15,000 crore and we have to manage our finances very carefully. But, we will do it. We will increase our revenue sources. We will complete many pending projects such as the LNG terminal at Gangavaram port and explore all other possibilities,” he said.

Referring to Visakhapatnam, he said it would be developed as a mega city and the issues related to its development would be taken up on a priority basis.

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