Vizianagaram bags last rank in growth rate

Vizianagaram: The district secured last place in the state in progress report. Recently, the government announced the ranks for the districts based on the progress in the past three years and on state gross domestic product (SGDP). Vizianagaram district bagged the last rank out of 13 districts in the progress report.

As per the statistical reports disclosed by the government, the state gross domestic product in 2016-17 was Rs 25,091 crore but it was escalated to Rs 28,360 crore during 2017-18. Though the district has recorded some growth, still the district was lagging behind the rest of the districts.

Every sector, including agriculture, industries, services sector are sailing in the same boat. Industrial sector has been facing challenges. Due to changes in consumer market, jute and ferro alloy industries have been facing problems. Uma Jute Mill, Aruna Jute Mill, Swarandhra, Andhra Fibres and Gopala Krishna are some of the jute mills which were closed. Hence, thousands of workers were rendered jobless.

Thousands of youth are still migrating to distant places like Hyderabad, Chennai, Vijayawada to eke out livelihood. But with the help of MGNREGA and some other schemes per capita income was raised from Rs 82,340 (2016-17) to Rs 1,05,434 (2017-18).

Due to lack of utilisation of natural resources is the main reason behind the backwardness of the district. It has sea coast and other natural resources to develop tourism-based projects but the government is not showing interest in this regard.

P Gopi, who was running SMS Ferro Alloy firm at Cheepurupalli area said: “If the government announces some incentives to our firms, we can expand this industry and provide additional employment.

Recently, we came to know that our district had attracted investments to the tune of Rs 12,000 crore at the Partnership Summit in Vizag. If the firms start their ventures, youth of our district would get jobs and the district would be developed.”