AP CM releases Quarterly assessment of sectors

Hyderabad, Sept 18 (INN): In a first-of-its-kind exercise, the Government of Andhra Pradesh took up the massive task of evaluating sector-wise contribution to the GSDP, recording the pitfalls and improvements in each sector.

At a 2-day Conference with district collectors and state-level officials that began today in Vijayawada, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu released the report on the 'First-quarter Assessment for April-June 2015-16 and the Way Forward.'

The state government is currently working on the comprehensive Double Digit Growth Plan to achieve a per-capita income over Rs. 10 lakh by 2029-30.

Discussing on Double-Digit Growth Strategy, the Chief Minister said, in Q1, Andhra Pradesh has achieved 9.72% GSDP growth rate against India's GDP growth rate of 7.1%.

Indicating that the conference is an important platform to evaluate how to achieve double-digit growth, he asked collectors to play an active role in creating a sustainable economy by mobilizing funds and resources.

In the sector-wise GSDP contribution, agriculture contributed 12.52% to the GSDP against 1.9% of agriculture's contribution to India's GDP; industries contributed 7.19% to the GSDP against 6.5% nationally while services contributed 10.15% to the GSDP against 8.9% contribution to India's GDP.

In a comparative analysis of Gross District Domestic Product and Per Capita Income (2015-16), Visakhapatnam and Krishna districts are leading in these indicators while Srikakulam and Vizianagaram have been rated as under-performing districts.

Elaborating on the report, the Chief Minister pointed out the huge difference of per capita income between various mandals in each district.

He suggested positive interventions and spending of resources to attain inclusive growth across all the mandals of the state in order to increase per capita income.

Meanwhile, the report also evaluated revenue distribution of districts on parameters like Commercial taxes, Prohibition and Excise, Registration and Stamps, Transport, Forest, Mines and Geology and land revenue.

The report states that districts such as Nellore, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam have high growth potential but are contributing the least.

Stating that Andhra Pradesh will set benchmarks in every sector and achieve double-digit growth within a short span of time, the Chief Minister asked officials to begin a similar evaluation exercise for the next year too.

'Adopt a scientific approach to evaluate sector-wise contribution to the GSDP and prepare a need-based budget plan,' he said.

Further, the Chief Minister asked district collectors to prepare an action plan for all growth engines identified and execute it as planned within fixed time-frames.

'Every programme should reach the village-level. What we need is accountability and target-setting from department to district-wise, mandal-wise, village-wise and all the way up to individual-wise assessment,' he added.

According to National Health Survey on Human Development Indices, it has been identified that several districts of the state that have performed well in 1991 have dropped low from 2004.

Even though the government spends 1/4th of the state's budget on social empowerment mission, the Chief Minister said, health, education, women and child welfare has failed to deliver results due to weak delivery mechanism and poor performance.

Before breaking for lunch, the Chief Minister said that the Collector's Conference is an important platform which not only offers space for district officials to highlight challenges but also provide solutions on the way forward, to improve the overall performance of districts.

Deputy CM K.E. Krishna Murthy, Ministers YanamalaRamakrishnudu, P. Narayana, GantaSrinivasa Rao, AyyannaPatrudu, Siddha Raghava Rao, K. Mrunalini, KamineniSrinivas, KolluRavindra, Manikyala Rao, Peethala Sujatha and Chief Secretary IYR Krishna Rao, Special Chief Secretary (Planning) S.P. Tucker, Advisor (Communications) Dr. Parakala Prabhakar and all heads of departments were present.