AP targets 10 pc growth

Governor addresses both the Houses on the opening day of the 45-day Budget session

Andhra Pradesh would be targeting a higher growth rate of 10 per cent during the 12th Five Year plan starting April, 2012 as the state had registered healthy performance on all the economic parameters in the past five years, said Governor ESL Narasimhan on Monday.

“It is evident that all the three sectors of the economy have shown impressive growth during the 11th Plan period so far. While the overall economy has grown at over 8 per cent during the first four years of the current Plan period, the agriculture sector recorded a growth rate in excess of 7 per cent during the same period,” he said addressing the joint session of the state legislative council and Assembly on the opening day of the 45-day long Budget session.

Members of the opposition parties including Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Telugu Desam (TDP) tried to disrupt the governor's address by raising slogans and hurling paper missiles at the podium before staging a walk out in protest.

The determined governor, who completed reading his 40-page address in 34 minutes without even pausing for a glass of water in between, stated that his government was committed to the welfare of each section of society and made good strides in overall development of the state.

For the last few years, annual Plan expenditure has risen consistently from Rs 11,456 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 31,576 crore in 2010-11. The Plan expenditure has shown a growth of more than 7 per cent during 2010-11 over the previous year, he said explaining the basis for a positive economic outlook for the state in the coming years.

Revenues during the period registered a compound annual growth rate of 19 per cent apart from maintaining their ascending trend by registering a growth in excess of 35 per cent during 2010-11, he said.

On the industrial front, the governor stated that despite the slowdown in the economy at the global as well as the national level, the state was able to achieve a growth rate of 9.22 per cent as compared with the national average of 7.16 per cent.

“The industrial policy of the state envisages an employment target of 500,000 per year with a possible investment target of Rs 15,000 crore per year for achieving 17 per cent growth in case of the manufacturing sector,” he said.

Coming to social development indicators, Narasimhan said his government was concerned about the high level of maternal (MMR), infant mortality (IMR) and morbidity rates and was committed to reducing the IMR to less than 30 per 1,000 lives and MMR to less than 100 per 100,000 by 2015.

Leader of the opposition and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu criticised the governor’s address for “not touching upon burning issues like corruption and problems of farmers and other sections of society.” TRS protested for not raising the issue of separate statehood for Telangana in his speech.