Govt giving top priority to welfare schemes: Ministers

Vijayawada: The state government has been giving priority to micro irrigation benefiting farmers in a big way, said agriculture minister Kakani Govardhana Reddy. Replying to a question at the start of question hour on fourth day of Assembly session on Friday, the minister said the farmers are saving 40 per cent of their input costs under micro irrigation. There was an increase in crop output and 70 per cent increase in revenue with micro irrigation. Replying to another question, he said that crops in 54,750 hectare were damaged due Mandous Cyclone during December last year and 80,095 farmers of Prakasham, Guntur and Nellore districts suffered losses. The government released Rs 6,899.89 lakh through direct benefit transfer to the farmers.

Roads and buildings minister Dadisetti Raja said in response to a question that the state government spent Rs 3,824.75 crore to repair 7,750 km length of roads in the past four years. He said the government proposed to spend Rs 1122 crore to take up repairs to 3,432 km length of roads. In addition, Rs 192.33 crore was proposed to be spent for completing bridges.

Mining minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy in a reply to a question on borewells said that farmer have to bear the cost of power connections to borewells. He said under YSR Jala Kala, 19,908 bore wells were dug so far and power connections were provided at a cost of Rs 54.95 crore. Minister for social welfare Merugu Nagarjuna said that the state government distributed Rs 52,654 crore to SCs in the past four years, whereas the TDP government spent Rs 33,65 crore.

Later, Speaker Tammineni Sitaram announced an action plan to elect a member from Legislative Council for regional railway advisory committee. He said candidates can file nominations by 5 pm on Friday and if necessary, elections will be conducted on March 20. Later, during discussion on budget, TDP MLA Yeluru Sambasiva Rao said that the annual budget is nothing but a numbers' gimmick. When the MLA took 20 minutes time, the Speaker asked another member Kona Raghupati to start his speech. At this juncture, all the TDP members rushed to podium and demanded mike for MLA Sambasiva Rao. When the TDP members failed to return to their seats the Speaker suspended 10 TDP members from day's session.

The suspended members including Velagapudi Ramakrishnababu, Nimmakaala Chinarajappa, Bendalam Ashok, K Atchannaidu, PGVR Naidu, M Rama Raju, Gadde Rammohan, Yeluri Sambasiva Rao, Dola Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy and Adireddy Bhavani walked out raising slogans. Bapatla MLA Kona Raghupathi, Rampachodavaram MLA N Dhanalakshmi, Parvatipuram MLA A Joga Rao and Ponnur MLA K Rosaiah praised the budget as welfare-oriented. Afterwards, the Assembly passed unanimously the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill 2023 introduced by minister for finance Buggana Rajendranath Reddy. The session also passed the AP Para Veterinary and Affiliated Council Bill introduced by animal husbandry minister S Appala Raju.