Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan said in his address to a joint session of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature on the first day of its Budget session on Monday that relentless efforts were being made for the last three years to provide decentralised and inclusive governance, as part of which restructuring of new districts was undertaken. He asserted that by implementing the 11th Pay Revision Commission (PRC) recommendations with a fitment of 23% and a flurry of other benefits given in spite of severe COVID-induced financial constraints, the government demonstrated its commitment to the well-being of employees and pensioners. The Governor said the GSDP at constant prices in 2021-22 achieved a year-on-year growth of 9.91% and a 0.22% real GSDP was registered in FY 2020-21 while the country’s real GDP shrank by 7.30% during the same period. All this was made possible by the government’s steadfast commitment to overcome the crisis perpetrated by the Coronavirus, five years of policy paralysis in 2014-19 and the economic downturn in the FY 2019-20.
Direct benefit transfer
Mr. Harichandan said the government remitted a whopping ₹1,32,126 crore to the beneficiaries of Direct Benefit Transfer scheme. Focus was on improving the standards of education and health, increasing farmers’ incomes and the empowerment of women. Commendable work has been done in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and the village and ward secretariats were giving rich dividends in delivering services in a transparent and efficient manner. The government was spending ₹15,000 crore on three phases of Mana-Badi Nadu-Nedu and ₹16,255 crore on revamping the health infrastructure under Nadu-Nedu in hospitals. A total expenditure of ₹20,162 crore was incurred for the benefit of 52.38 lakh farmers since 2019-20. The Governor said ₹19,146 crore was spent on nine-hour free power supply for the agriculture sector so far. A huge amount of ₹48,958 crore was disbursed under the YSR Pension Kanuka till date. Of the 54 Jalayagnam projects, 14 have been completed and the remaining were in various stages of execution. On the energy front, the government contracted with the Solar Energy Corporation of India for procurement of 15,000 Million Units per annum at ₹2.49 per kWh. The yearly savings accrued would be around ₹3,750 crore, Mr. Harichandan said and went on to throw light on a slew of other initiatives and schemes.
