Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu signed five files related to the election promise, immediately after assuming office at the Secretariat in Amaravati on June 13 (Thursday). They are: issuing a DSC notification for filling 16,347 teacher posts; withdrawal of the AP Land Titling Act brought by the predecessor YSRCP government; enhancing social security pension to ₹4,000 per head from ₹3,000 to senior citizens and widows, and to ₹6,000 from ₹3,000 to persons with disabilities (PWD); reviving Anna Canteens across the State to provide quality food at ₹5; and conducting a Skill Census to upgrade the skillset of the youth in the State, in that order.
Mr. Naidu took charge as the Chief Minister, amidst the Vedic chants of priests and in the presence of his Cabinet Ministers and bureaucrats at 4.41 p.m.
Earlier, all along the road on his way to the Secretariat, Mr. Naidu was welcomed by the Amaravati farmers and TDP cadre, who showered him with flowers.
Later, at the Secretariat, a team of Ministers, including Nimmala Ramanaidu, Dola Sri Veerabalanjaneya Swamy and S. Savitha, addressed the first meeting of the newly formed State government of the NDA. They alleged that the former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had utterly failed in giving even a single DSC notification or a job calendar during his five-year rule. Mr. Jagan even failed to give honorarium to the unemployed youth, which was introduced by the previous TDP government, they said.
Terming the AP Land Titling Act as Jagan’s land grabbing Act, they said the law created a lot of fear among the land holders across the State.
Mr. Ramanaidu said that for the last five years the people of the State lived in the fear of their land being grabbed by the YSRCP leaders.
Despite repeated requests made by the TDP, Mr. Jagan discontinued the Anna Canteens. The fervent appeals to run them, if necessary by renaming them after YSR or Mr. Jagan, went unheeded. Now, the Anna Canteens would be reopened in the next 100 days, the Ministers said.
Skill Census would help gauge the skill levels of the State’s youth, so that necessary action could be taken to improve their skillsets and ensure proper employment. Further, the NDA had also promised to provide unemployment honorarium to the youth, they maintained.
Pensions would be given to eligible people at their doorstep but the government is yet to decide who would be doing this. The Volunteer System, through which the beneficiaries were getting pensions earlier, has been put in abeyance for a couple of months as the Model Code of Conduct was in force for the elections, they added.
