Amaravati: Minister for Municipal Administration Botsa Satyanarayana said that the State government has put public welfare in the forefront, strengthening from the village level, despite going through COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the Minister said that Gandhiji’s dream of Grama Swaraj has been fulfilled through Village and ward secretariats, by offering over 500 government services through the secretariats and further creating employment for 3.9 lakh youngsters as volunteers and secretariat staff. All these secretariats have been made into core handles for all welfare schemes, reducing the hassles for beneficiaries, and maintaining complete transparency in providing the welfare schemes. Asserting that village and ward secretariats have played a pivotal role in tracking Covid cases, the Minister said that the government had effectively dealt with catastrophic situations, tested more than one crore people for Covid, and removed the looming fear among the people. Under the leadership of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, by taking effective measures the State government had effectively controlled the spread of Covid.

This year, the government has fulfilled the dream of the poor by distributing house sites to 30.75 lakh people and further started the construction of 15.75 lakh houses under the first phase. The Chief Minister also focused on education and health sectors and thus brought developmental activities like Nadu-Nedu, through which all the government schools and hospitals are being revamped to wear a new look and further get equipped with all the necessary infrastructure facilities. By implementing schemes such as Amma Vodi, Vidya Deevena, Vasati Deevena, Jagananna Vidya Kanuka and Goru Muddha, revolutionary changes were brought in the education sector. Also, the state government focussed on implementing schemes like YSR Aarogyasri, Aarogya Asara, YSR Telemedicine, bringing 1088 ambulances, establishing 16 new medical colleges, and setting up multispeciality hospitals in tribal areas, which elevated public healthcare to the next level. Similarly, as part of women empowerment, the state government rolled out schemes like Cheyutha, Aasara, Zero-interest loans, and went ahead by signing MoUs with top companies like Amul, Reliance, ITC for encouraging women to have a safe investment and recurring income. To ensure women’s safety and speed up the trial process, the State government brought Disha Act, which is the first of its kind in the country. Resurvey of land has been the other major initiative of the government taken up to measure every inch of land on the plains in association with Survey of India and a big contingent of surveyors was appointed and trained for the purpose.

Minister Botsa Satyanarayana pointed at the poor role of opposition leaders in the State, who completely abandoned the people of the State during Covid crisis. He said that the opposition TDP leaders have gone overboard and created hurdles in the path of development. During the TDP regime, Chandrababu Naidu and his coterie had misused public money, where the CAG report had clearly stated that Chandrababu Naidu had pushed the State into deep debts and crippled the State finances. During the 2017-18 fiscal year, Naidu’s government has taken overdraft to which CAG accused the poor financial policies taken by TDP government that resulted in Rs 2,23,706 Crores of debt by the end of March 2018 with zero assets. Besides these, Chandrababu and his close associates have looted hundreds of crores through Amaravati land scam to benefit his benamis and to safeguard his real estate business. The Minister said that Chandrababu Naidu had played with castes, religions and tried to bring communal disputes among the people.