AP seeks restoration of Rs 703 cr debt waiver

Union cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar on Saturday called on chief minister K Rosaiah at the latter’s camp office to discuss issues relating to projects and other pending issues. He said he would call for a meeting of top state officials, secretaries and head of the departments concerned at the Centre in October to discuss these matters.

He agreed to the proposal of the state government to include Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts as Left Wing Extremists-affected districts and provide the required assistance to augment the infrastructure in these districts.

The state government also represented to the cabinet secretary that the state was facing a severe financial strain and the Centre may restore the debt waiver of Rs 703.08 crore each for 2008-09 and 2009-10, according to a press release from the chief minister's office.

Earlier, he inaugurated the Centre for Innovations in Public Systems, set up on the recommendation of the 13th Finance Commission to promote and disseminate best practices in public service and develop models for replication, at the Administrative Staff College of India here.

He said the Centre would set up 40,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) across the country in two years to offer a host of government-to-citizen services using Internet. The government has planned to set up 1,00,00 such centres.