Wednesday, May 28, 2003
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Andhra Pradesh
By Our Staff Reporter
The TDP supreme ,N. Chandrababu Naidu, getting his party ID card clipped to his shirt by the Chittoor district party president, Rameshchandra Prasad, at the Mahanadu venue in Tirupati on Tuesday,
Speaking on the `natural calamities' and `drought' concept during the post-lunch session on the inaugural day of the three-day Telugu Desam Party Mahanadu, here today, the Chief Minister said the Government had already spent Rs. 7,200 crores in fighting the drought and famine in the State. The Government had initiated several steps in providing food to the poor and marginal farmer apart from providing sufficient fodder to the hapless livestock -- which also had become victim to the drought. Coming down heavily on the Congress, Mr. Naidu said when the State was reeling under a serious and prolonged dry spell, they (Congress leaders) were busy with organising ``padayatras.'' It was not a padayatra to study the drought conditions and know the sufferings of the poor as was being claimed by them, but a ploy to regain power which the Congress had lost due to its "dismal performance'' during its 35 five years of rule in the State. Mr. Naidu said it was not new for the TDP and its workers to move along with people of the State. "It is what we have been doing it for the past several years. May be it may be new to them. It is high time the Congress realised that padayatras will not serve any purpose nor will fetch many votes.'' He asked TDP functionaries to be more committed in their service to people. "Be vigilant and fight back the false and baseless allegations being made by Congress leaders,'''he added. Speaking on total literacy and the education system, Mr. Naidu said his Government was committed to achieving `hundred per cent literacy' by 2005. The Government had initiated steps making primary school education compulsory and at the same time had imposed several restrictions on the `child labour'. By making primary education compulsory, the Government could mobilise more than 1.5-crore children to schools. Also, more than 69 lakh people were being benefited under the `Akshara Sankranthi' scheme intended at providing minimum education to people between 15 and 35 years of age. It was only with an intention to achieve the fascinating hundred per cent literacy mark, that the Government had introduced the mid-day meal for the schoolchildren. Recognising the services of DWCRA groups, which were instrumental in carrying out the mid-day meal scheme, the Government had handed over more than 72,00 schools to them. More than 75 lakh children were being benefited under this scheme. In the past seven years, the Government had recruited more than 1.80 lakh school teachers and had sanctioned a record number of 50,000 schools spread all over the State, of which nearly 45,000 school buildings had already been constructed, apart from sanctioning more than 1,500 junior colleges. Taking a dig at the Congress, Mr. Naidu said the Congress could not construct even a single school building during its rule between 1989-94, whereas the TDP had sanctioned more than 217 engineering and medical colleges in the past seven years.
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