During the 75th Independence Day celebrations at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation stadium on August 15, Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the last 16 months have been gruelling for the State government as the Coronavirus crippled the State’s finances. However, he added that the government fought against the ‘invisible enemy’ (COVID-19) with all its might and succeeded to a large extent in curbing the menace with a three pronged approach (testing, tracing and treatment).
Mr. Reddy said that due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the government’s revenue has fallen sharply while the expenditure soared. He added that while trying to shore up the revenues, the government is spending every single pie responsibly responsibly. Mr. Reddy said huge sums were spent on housing and public health, especially on the containment of Covid. The government came to the rescue of the poor by providing them treatment to various diseases under the Aarogyasri scheme and the government is in the process of giving a major uplift to hospitals and setting up medical colleges.
The Chief Minister also noted that the reforms initiated by the government in various sectors were yielding the desired results and claimed that the establishment of village and ward Secretariats was a major step that took governance to people’s doorsteps.
Mr. Reddy said that as the people reeled under the impact of the pandemic, the government put money into their hands through Direct Benefit Transfer, which helped them cope with the crisis. He insisted that the government was careful in utilising its resources and that the ultimate goal of the government is the betterment of every family and all regions of the State.
The Chief Minister said that the government was taking decisions with a clear vision for the future and that he was striving to rectify certain ‘institutional lapses’ which hampered the growth. “This is a historic occasion. We have achieved many things but we can’t afford to be complacent as there are many challenges. It’s time to pull up the socks by learning from our past experiences”, Mr. Reddy said.
The Chief Minister said that his government’s top priority is education and claimed that it is the key to enrichment of the human resource. Due emphasis has been laid on delivering the ‘right to English medium education’, and decentralising administration down to the village level as concentrating everything in a city had been historically proved to be counterproductive.
In tune with the government’s priority towards the agriculture sector, a sum of nearly ₹83,000 crores had been spent in the last 26 months. Support was being extended to farmers from the sowing stage to sale of crops through ‘Rythu Bharosa Kendras’ and other means, the Chief Minister claimed.
While talking about the government’s achievements, Mr. Reddy mentioned that Disha police stations were giving the much needed protection to women and girls and that steps were taken to set up special courts to try offences under the Disha Act.
“The government stood No.1 in the empowerment of farmers by taking forward the irrigation projects from Srikakulam to Chittoor and extending financial assistance to them under various schemes”, the Chief Minister said without mentioning any specific projects.
The Chief Minister further dwelt on a slew of welfare schemes being implemented by his government and vowed to do his best as a ‘public servant’. Mr. Reddy hoisted the National Flag flanked by Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das and Director General of Police D. Gautam Sawang. They watched the ceremonial parade and tableaux of various departments.
