Date:27/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/27/stories/2008012758330600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Benefits of reforms yet to reach the poor: Naidu

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu said here on Saturday that although the economic reforms in the country had yielded results in terms of creation of wealth, the benefits had not yet percolated down to the common man.

Addressing a gathering of party leaders at the TDP headquarters after hoisting the tri-colour on Republic Day, he said that the economic reforms initiated in 1991 had paid off with increased wealth creation, but 17 years later, the wealth was still going to only a few sections of society and individuals, he said.

The benefits were not reaching the poorest of the poor, he said.

Corruption, he said, was the biggest hurdle to development and despite the fact that reforms had set the nation firmly on the developmental path, poverty was still spreading its tentacles.