AP govt to promote industries

Seeks Rs 15,000 cr grant from Centre as interim measure

The Andhra Pradesh (AP) government will put in place a hassle-free and conducive environment to encourage establishment of new industries, according to Governor, ESL Narasimhan.

Addressing a joint session of the AP Assembly and Council here on Saturday, the Governor said the state government would take quick decisions and provide transparent administration leveraging the latest technology.

He said the government was planning to develop three mega cities and 12 other cities and would come out with a new land development policy to make land owner a stakeholder in the project that would come up on the land acquired.

The strategic geographic location and long coastline of 972 km of AP would be leveraged to fast track the growth by developing new growth centres in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Apart from the Machilipatnam port, two LNG terminals would be developed at Visakhapatrnam and Kakinada, the Governor said.

Stating that the AP government would strive to achieve over 10 per cent annual growth rate, he said that the focus would be on building growth corridors for identified sectors for creating jobs. These growth corridors would have requisite transport facilities, technical know-how, power, water resources and other facilities. They would also be connected to the seaports, road, rail infrastructure and integrated with catchment area of raw material.

About farm loans waiver promised by the ruling Telugu Desam Party, he said the state government was working out the best possible options with bankers. A committee was appointed to look into the issue and discussions were under way with the Reserve Bank of India and bankers to expedite and quickly evolve a framework in this regard.

Emphasising that the bifurcation would adversely impact AP and its public finances for a long time to come, the Governor said the Union government would create a level-playing field for the growth and development of the state with liberal financial assistance and policy support. This support should be extended till AP’s economy was on a par with the developed states in the country.

Pointing out that AP had a revenue deficit of over Rs 15,000 crore, he sought a grant of Rs 15,000 crore from the Centre as an interim measure and a special grant of Rs 8,600 crore to finance critical development projects under execution.

The Governor also requested the Centre to immediately establish two management boards for Krishna and Godavari rivers and reconstitute the Tungabhadra Board to ensure equitable sharing of water between the two new states and other upper riparian states.

Meanwhile, he said, the AP government had embarked upon a 100-day development agenda and would re-draft the vision 2020 document to set standards for a new development paradigm to place the state among the best three performing states in India by 2022.