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Andhra Pradesh chief minster N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday said his government would redraft the Vision 2020 document for a planned and integrated development of the residuary state in line with the changed circumstances.
The vision document will be in sync with and encompassing a 20-year period starting from 14th Finance Commission period beginning April 1, 2015, according to him.
“Somehow this Vision 2020 concept did not catch the imagination of the people when I introduced it last time. We will adapt the idea to the new circumstances focusing on the development of 13 districts of residuary Andhra Pradesh,” he told reporters.
During his second term in office, Naidu had got a vision document prepared for the undivided AP with the help of global consultancy firm Mckinsey. This time he would take ideas from people like Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, among others to prepare a blueprint for the state’s development.
Apart from his long-term planning ideas, Naidu asked the secretaries of all the government departments to come out with a 100-day action plan covering immediate and long-term measures, and course corrections for the improvement of areas covered by these departments.
He said there was an immediate need to re-establish the systems and to rework on the government priorities in the state as the people who ruled the state in the last ten years had destroyed the economy for their selfish ends.
Naidu said his government would release six white papers covering the state of affairs in the area of human resource development, infrastructure, irrigation and agriculture, power, governance and the injustice meted out to the state of residuary Andhra Pradesh shortly for public debate. This exercise would be taken up shortly after the state legislative Assembly’s first session and would be concluded before the Budget session for the purpose of assessing the present conditions and also involve the people in setting goals and priorities in the state Budget, he said.
“All that happened in the state in the past ten years was a lopsided development. Public investments were made where politicians were assured of more returns for themselves. Over 40 per cent of the project cost was spent in the irrigation sector but all of that remained is a non performing asset (NPA) even to this day,” Naidu alleged.
Claiming that the state was in a deep crisis, he said his role would be to turn this crisis into an opportunity. He said the Government of India had to provide a level-playing field through financial and other assistance.
On the alleged corruption scandals in the past, the chief minister said his government would review the projects that faced allegations of corruption. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi had constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) to eliminate corruption. We will also take appropriate steps in cases that have already attracted the attention of international agencies,” he said.
