Metropolis team meets Municipal Administration Minister

Hyderabad, Feb 11 (INN): A team from the Metropolis of Barcelona in Spain called on Municipal Administration Minister M Maheedhar Reddy at his chambers here on Tuesday.

The team comprised of Alain Lesaus, Barcelona, Secretary General, Metropolis, Sunil Dubey, Sydney, Country Director, Metropolis, Agnes Bickart, Barcelona, International Manager, Metropolis, Teresa Oliver, Barcelona, Project Officer, Metropolis and D. Ajay Suri, Delhi, Regional Manager, Asia, Cities Alliance, Brussels. Briefing about the welfare activities taken up by Government of Andhra Pradesh, the Minister said that the youth are trained to the requirements of the companies under Rajiv Yuvakiranalu programme. Girls Students are given priority in each sector, since last 15 years girls are more in top 10 of medicine and Engineering entrance tests and they are on par with boys or more than boys in some instances.

The Minister briefed that the Government has been take all possible steps for the welfare of the farmers and suggested them to visit some rural areas in order to witness the welfare activities.

Speaking about the Women's Self Help Groups, the Minister said that the women who have paid back their loan well within the time are given incentive with no interest loan. Rs. 1000 crores were kept as corpus fund for maintaining women bank exclusively to serve the women groups. He further said that there is no segregation of BPL (Below Poverty Line) are APL (Above Poverty Line) in case of women and any 10 women can form a group. The Minister invited them to visit women groups while they are on their job.

All BPL (Below Poverty Line) families are benefited by the housing programme of the Government, the Minister said and opined that the continuation and lack of proper supervision are the only concerns of various Government schemes. He briefed them about various other welfare schemes of Government of Andhra Pradesh.

The Minister has also invited the team of Metropolis to go round Numish (The Industrial Exhibition) which is a mirror of Indian Cultural Diversity.

The team later on has called on the Principal Secretaries of MA&UD Dr. Sameer Sarma and S.K. Joshi. The team has invited the Minister and Principal Secretaries to visit the Secretariat of Metropolis at Barcelona in Spain.

D. Ronald Rose, Additional Commissioner (Planning) and S Aleem Basha, Zonal Commissioner (West Zone) also participated in the discussions.