VIJAYAWADA: Reiterating his government’s commitment to women’s empowerment, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the EBC Nestham scheme for the economic uplift of poor women belonging to upper castes in the State will be launched on January 9, 2022.
Concluding a short discussion on ‘Women Empowerment’ on the first day of the State Assembly session on Thursday, November 18, 2021, the Chief Minister said Andhra Pradesh has been witnessing a golden era for the past two-and-a-half years as the government has initiated several measures to empower women politically, socially and economically. “This has clearly reflected in all the local body elections in the State, including the most recent Kuppam civic poll,’’ Jagan observed.
Listing out various development initiatives taken up by his government in the last two-and-a-half years, he stated that the Amma Vodi scheme is being implemented covering 44.50 lakh women to enable them send their children to school, which addresses both the school dropout rate and the problem of child labour, by providing Rs 6,500 crore to beneficiaries per annum. A total sum of Rs 13,023 crore has been directly credited into beneficiaries’ bank accounts under the scheme.
Similarly, the cash benefit under the Jagananna Vidya Deevena and Jagananna Vasathi Deevena schemes towards full fee reimbursement and hostel and mess charges is also being credited into the bank accounts of students’ mothers, he explained. Speaking on the YSR Pension Kanuka scheme, he took a dig at the previous TDP regime, which distributed pensions only to those recommended by Janma Bhoomi Committees. The total expenditure on implementation of the pension scheme was only Rs 400 crore per month and the total number of beneficiaries in the State was limited to 39 lakh, he said.
In contrast, the YSRC government had increased the pension amount to Rs 2,250, besides covering 61.73 lakh beneficiaries under Pension Kanuka. A total sum of Rs 1,500 crore is being spent on implementation of the scheme and beneficiaries are getting the benefit at their doorstep. “Of the total 61.73 lakh beneficiaries of the scheme, 36.7 lakh are women,’’ Jagan said.The sale of IMFL declined to 21.22 lakh cases from 34 lakh per month. Similarly, the sale of beer came down to 7 lakh cases from 17 lakh due to the closure of belt shops and limiting the number of liquor outlets in the State, he added.
Assembly session till Nov 26
The State Assembly session, which was initially proposed to be a one-day affair, would now be held till November 26. In the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting, the Opposition TDP demanded that the session be conducted for at least 15 days. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy readily agreed to the proposal and it was decided to hold the session till November 26, Government Chief Whip Gadikota Srikanth Reddy said.
Though the TDP demanded that the session transact business for more days, Opposition Leader N Chandrababu Naidu was conspicuous by his absence on the first day of the session and only a handful of TDP MLAs were present in the House. Earlier TDP members, led by Naidu reached the Assembly holding placards demanding that the fuel prices be slashed. Dr Dasari Sudha, the newly elected MLA from Badvel, took the oath in the Assembly.
Cabinet meet today
The State Cabinet will meet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the Secretariat at Velagapudi on Friday. Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma said the meeting will begin at 3 pm