Minister for Agriculture and district in-charge Minister Kurasala Kannababu has said that the objective of decentralisation of administration was to ensure the development of all regions in the State.
Speaking at the AP Formation Day celebrations at the Collectorate here on Sunday, Mr. Kannababu recalled that Andhra Pradesh was the first State in the country to be formed on linguistic basis. A light metro rail corridor would be established in Visakhapatnam at an estimated cost of ₹14,000 crore and a modern tram corridor with ₹7,000 crore.
The Minister gave details of the welfare schemes likeYSR Rythu Bharosa, Jagananna Vidya Deevena, YSR Arogyasri, YSR Jalayagnam and other projects being implemented in the district. An amount of ₹587.73 crore was credited to the accounts of 3,91,822 mothers of 5.75 lakh students in the district under the Amma Vodi scheme. Similarly, ₹459.43 crore was credited to the bank accounts of 6,61,317 beneficiaries as the first instalment under the YSR Asara scheme on September 11.
He explained that measures were being taken for distribution of house sites to 2,53,173 poor people in the district.
A total of 1,439.08 acres of government land was available in the district, another 299.87 acres of assigned and 84.43 other land was acquired in the district. An additional 4,457.05 acres of government and assigned land was taken under the Land Pooling Scheme in urban areas.
He said that eligible women beneficiaries would be given the land soon. He also gave details of the money being distributed in the district under various welfare schemes like YSR Pension scheme, YSR Nava Shakam, YSR Sunna Vaddi, YSR Nethanna and YSR Arogyasri.
Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao spoke on the prospects of Visakhapatnam and added that it would soon gain international recognition.
Official Language Commission Chairman Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, District Collector V. Vinay Chand, Anakapalle MP B.V. Satyavathi, Police Commissioner Manish Kumar Sinha and Superintendent of Police (Visakhapatnam Rural) B. Krishna Rao spoke.
Earlier, Mr. Kannababu hoisted the national flag and saluted it. Later, he paid tributes to the portraits of Telugu Talli and ‘Amarajeevi’ Potti Sriramulu.
Visakhapatnam MP M.V.V. Satyanarayana and MLAs G. Babu Rao, Kannababu Raju, Gudivada Amarnath and A. Adeep Raj, Joint Collectors Venugopal Reddy, Arun Babu and Govinda Rao, GVMC Commissioner G. Srijana and VMRDA Commissioner P. Koteswara Rao were among those who participated.
