CM Jagan praises PM Modi for \'visionary\' initiatives

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy said ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ was one of the laudable initiatives under the visionary leadership of the Prime Minister to celebrate and commemorate the completion of 75 years of Independence.

Addressing a virtual conference at the second national committee meeting of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jagan said the programme provided an occasion to rejoice the nation’s glorious past, its cultural, social, economic and scientific achievements made during the admirable journey of 75 years and also to reaffirm our commitment to the nation’s progress.

 “The economic growth has not sufficiently trickled down to the poor in the country. The recently published ‘World Inequality Report 2022’ estimates that top 10 per cent and top 1 per cent of the country’s population hold 57 per cent and 22 per cent of the total national income respectively. Income inequality would result in increased rural indebtedness, lower purchasing power and reduction in rural aggregate demand. This is a serious problem that deserves immediate attention from all of us as policymakers. In the light of the fragility, the interventions must be made more impactful by identifying and effectively addressing the bottlenecks and thereby making inclusive economic growth possible,” Jagan said.

The Chief Minister said, “I had the privilege of felicitating the freedom fighters from the state of Andhra Pradesh. At the commencement of 'Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav', while commemorating freedom fighters, I was immensely pleased to visit and pay my respects to Sita Mahalakshmi, the daughter of late Pingali Venkayya, at her native place, Venkayya, one of the freedom fighters was also the designer of the national Tricolour flag. The place where Pingali Venkaiah presented the Tricolour to Mahatma Gandhi in 1921, is in Vijayawada and it now houses an archaeological museum named Bapu Museum. Our government has recently renovated and rededicated this museum to the public.”

The Chief Minister stated that the energy sector played a very key role in socio-economic development, as over the last 15 years, the country’s installed power generation capacity had increased from 1,27,423 MW to 3,84,116 MW. “More particularly, the thermal power generation capacity has increased from 83,982 MW to 2,34,058 MW during the last 15 years, resulting in increased emissions of greenhouse gases, threatening future generations,” he said.

Jagan conveyed his appreciation for the initiative of the Prime Minister, ‘One Sun (OS), One World (OW), One Grid (OG)’ aiming at harnessing clean energy and contributing to sustainable economic progress. “By facilitating the exchange of power from two time zones, maybe it is a dream today, but one day, considering the fact that the optical fibre is a reality, already connecting continents and transferring data, this power grid across continents is not a distant dream, specially when we have leaders like Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs,” the Chief Minister said.