Hurt by KCR’s jibe, Naidu to leave Hyderabad soon

HYDERABAD: Deeply hurt by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s comments asking him not to hang on to Hyderabad and move to his own state, his AP counterpart Chandrababu Naidu has decided to move to Vijayawada in another 20 days.
Naidu has also asked his ministers to set up their offices in Vijayawada before June 2. Visibly pained over KCR’s remarks a few days ago on his stay in Hyderabad, Naidu told his cabinet colleagues that governing the residuary state from Hyderabad has invited a lot of criticism.
As a result, the AP cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday decided to move to Vijayawada immediately and from there to the new capital city once it is constructed. According to sources, Naidu will start working from his Vijayawada camp office from June 2 and the other ministers are expected to follow suit. A cabinet sub-committee headed by finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu has been appointed to oversee the shifting of government employees working in Hyderabad. The committee will have as members irrigation minister Devineni Umamaheswar Rao and municipal minister P Narayana. “We will see that most of the departments and the staff shift to the new capital region as early as possible,” minister Devineni told TOI.
Several ministers pointed to Naidu that though they have done excellent work in the last one year, it did not receive the recognition it ought to have, just because of the comparison between two state governments. Naidu asked ministers to prepare a report on their performance in the last one year and said he would evaluate their performance based on the reports.
To enlighten the people about the government’s success stories, the cabinet decided to hold “Nava Nirman Deeksha (reconstruction mission)” from June 2 to 8 across the 13 districts of AP in which the ministers will explain the achievements of the government. “On June 8, there will be a massive public meeting to celebrate one year in office. The venue is yet to be decided,” said labour minister K Atchannaidu.
The cabinet cleared the crucial micro, medium and small industry policy aimed at attracting Rs 15,000 crore investments and creating 3.5 lakh jobs in the next three years. The policy reserves 15 per cent land in all industrial estates for MSME units in which SC,ST, women and minority entrepreneurs will get priority. VAT and GST reimbursement has been proposed for micro units and fixed capital investment subsidy proposed to all MSME units.
The comprehensive tourism policy to attract Rs 10,000-crore revenue from the tourism sector and to create 5 lakh jobs by 2020 was also cleared. The tourism policy envisaged land lease for 33 years for all tourism projects and several investment incentives for the projects taken up under the Public Private Partnership model.
The new fisheries policy to modernize the sector also got the cabinet nod. “At present, our state is earning Rs 16,000 crore foreign exchange through fish and prawn exports. The new policy is aimed at increasing it by four times in five years,” said agriculture minister P Pulla Rao. Fish processing units will be set up in 114 municipalities and PPP model investment will be invited in the sector to acquire advanced technology to augment exports.
The cabinet approved a proposal to encourage coffee cultivation near Araku, Paderu mandal in Visakhapatnam district in about one lakh acres with an estimated investment of Rs 546 crore. Of this, Rs 160 crore will be reimbursed by the Centre as subsidy. The cabinet also approved setting up a team of finance experts to study the Agrigold scam and submit a report to the government so that the victims would get their money back. The cabinet cleared the e-procurement policy for e-governance projects to improve transparency and accountability in all government departments.