The Andhra Pradesh government has promised to develop three big cities in the state-Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati into mega cities and transform 14 other municipal corporation cities/towns into "smart cities" in the state.
The State's new Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu stated on Thursday, 12 June, that his government has appointed a committee to ensure corruption-free administration in the government. He said this during the first Cabinet meeting of the new government in Visakhapatnam. Another committee has been formed for implementation of clean drinking water programme, "NRT Sujal Scheme."
The Cabinet meeting was held at Vizag's Andhra University, where the team discussed about various developmental schemes for seven hours.
Naidu said that the committee appointed on farmer loan waiver will submit its report by 22 June, after which a meeting with bankers will be held before implementing the loan waiver scheme for farmers in the state.
He is also said to have revealed that he had requested the previous UPA government at the Centre to do justice to united AP at the time of bifurcation, which was done in a most unreasonable manner. As a result, the residual AP state is now facing ₹15,900 crore deficit budget.
He also explained that a fiscal aid of ₹4-5 lakh crore is required to build the state's new capital city and that the State government will seek the Centre's help for this. The State will ask the Centre to extend the present five-year special category status to 15-years as part of the bifurcation package deal, he said.
Naidu appealed to the people to donate funds for the construction of the state's new capital city and development schemes of the state and also said that a special account has been opened to receive the donations.
The North Andhra Regional Wing of AP Real Estate Developers' Association has donated ₹50 lakh to the fund. Several other associations and individuals have also begun to contribute to the fund to build the new AP capital city, Naidu revealed.
The Cabinet meeting decided to set up a separate electricity load discharging centre for AP. Currently, there is one load discharging centre serving both AP and Telangana.
The CM also said that a paper will be brought out soon, to explain about the state's current financial situation. He stressed on the need of optimum utilization of the Central schemes and special financial packages to AP.
Development of Tirupati-Tirumala area will be given importance and Naidu also spoke about the arrest of 500 thieves and poachers of sandalwood in Tirumala forests. Robbing of forest wealth will be contained effectively, he added.
He announced that the increased pensions to aged, widows, and weavers will be given 2 October onwards.
Naidu also said that employees retirement age will be increased to 60 years from the present 58 years and at the same time all steps will be taken to fill all vacancies.
