N Chandrababu Naidu supports women's empowerment

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said, “I will be the first one to support reservations for women in Parliament.” Addressing the gathering at the International Women's Day celebrations organised by the Andhra Pradesh state government, the CM said that women were better financial managers than financial experts, and that they could perform better than men in many fields. He said that in the future, educated women would be paid dowry.

The CM said that his government was committed to the cause of empowerment of women, and that they would soon implement an action plan to financially uplift every woman in the state. He said that he would always stand by women and support them as a brother. He said that as per reports of the World Economic Forum, women would get equal opportunities as men by 2186; and added that women should not wait until then to get their rightful share in all sectors.

“The government has proposed several new welfare schemes for the empowerment of women, but we are unable to announce them now due to the MLC election code,” said Mr Naidu. He made assurances that free gas connections would be given to every household by June 2, 2017; and he said that government was working towards making Andhra Pradesh free of open defecation by 2019.

Chairperson of the Andhra Pradesh Women’s Finance Corporation Panchumarti Anuradha said that she had suffered from cancer and had to receive 70 chemotherapies and that the CM's support had given her hope. The Andhra Pradesh state government felicitated women achievers from across the state and the Vijayawada city police organised celebrations at all 20 police stations within the jurisdiction of the police commissionerate in association with the Vasavya Mahila Mandali. They felicitated five women achievers from within the limits of each police station.