Despite Covid, government created employment for 3.9 lakh youth: Botsa Satyanarayana

"Gandhiji's dream of Gram Swaraj has been fulfilled through Village and ward secretariats. We have created employment for 3.9 lakh youngsters as volunteers and secretariat staff. All these secretariats have been made into core handles for all welfare schemes, reducing the hassles for beneficiaries, and maintaining complete transparency in providing the welfare schemes," he said.

Asserting that village and ward secretariats have played a pivotal role in tracking Covid cases, the Minister said that the government had effectively dealt with catastrophic situations and tested more than one crore people.

He said under the leadership of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, effective measures were taken to control the spread of Covid.

The minister said this year, the government has fulfilled the dream of the poor by distributing house sites to 30.75 lakh people and started the construction of 15.75 lakh houses under the first phase.

He said the Chief Minister also focused on education and health sectors and brought developmental activities like Nadu-Nedu, through which all the government schools and hospitals are being revamped.

"By implementing schemes such as Amma Vodi, Vidya Deevena, Vasati Deevena, Jagananna Vidya Kanuka, and Goru Muddha, revolutionary changes were brought into the education sector. Also, the state government focused on implementing schemes like YSR Aarogyasri, Aarogya Asara, and YSR Telemedicine, bringing 1088 ambulances, establishing 16 new medical colleges, and setting up multispeciality hospitals in tribal areas, which elevated public healthcare to the next level," he said.

The minister said to ensure women's safety and speed up the trial process, the State government brought the Disha Act, which is the first of its kind in the country. "Similarly, as part of women empowerment, the state government rolled out schemes like Cheyutha, Aasara, Zero-interest loans, and went ahead by signing MoUs with top companies like Amul, Reliance, ITC for encouraging women to have a safe investment and recurring income," he said.

The minister noted that resurvey of land has been the other major initiative of the government taken up to measure every inch of land on the plains in association with Survey of India.

Minister Botsa Satyanarayana lashed out at opposition leaders for what he said abandoning the people during the Covid crisis. He said TDP leaders have gone overboard and created hurdles in the path of development.

"During the TDP regime, Chandrababu Naidu and his coterie had misused public money. CAG report clearly stated that Chandrababu Naidu had pushed the State into deep debts and crippled the finances. During 2017-18, Naidu's government had taken overdraft to which CAG accused the poor financial policies taken by the TDP government that resulted in Rs 2,23,706 Crores of debt by the end of March 2018 with zero assets," he said.

The minister said Chandrababu and his close associates have looted hundreds of crores through Amaravati land scam to benefit his benamis and to safeguard his real estate business. The Minister said that Chandrababu Naidu had played with castes, religions and tried to bring communal disputes among the people.