Andhra Cabinet takes key decisions to implement poll promises

Amaravati: The maiden meeting of the new Cabinet in Andhra Pradesh on Monday decided to implement five poll promises.

The meeting, chaired by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, gave approval to five files signed by him after assuming office last week.

The Cabinet decided to recruit 16,347 government teachers through mega DSC (District Selection Committee) notification and cleared the schedule for the recruitment. The process will start in July.

The Cabinet approved the revocation of the Land Titling Act as promised by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and its allies in the elections. They had said during the election campaign that APLTA brought by the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government was detrimental to the people’s right to their properties. Leaders of the TDP, the Jana Sena, and the BJP had alleged that data pertaining to the land records was handed over to a private company purportedly for storing and expressed the apprehension that it could be tampered with to the benefit of land grabbers.

The Cabinet decided to enhance social security pensions to elderly people, widows and other beneficiaries to Rs 4,000 from the present Rs 3,000.

As per another decision of the Cabinet, the government will conduct a skill census in the state to ensure employment opportunities for the youth.

The Cabinet also decided to re-open Anna Canteens. After coming to power in 2019, the YSR Congress government shut down Anna Canteens across the state, set up by the earlier TDP government to provide meals at Rs 5 to the poor and the middle class. All 204 canteens were shut down in August 2019 as YSR Congress alleged corruption in the scheme.

In another key decision, the Cabinet approved restoring the name of Dr NTR University of Health Sciences. The health university was the brainchild of former Chief Minister and TDP founder Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao. NTR, as the late leader was popularly known, had inaugurated the university in 1986. After the death of NTR in 1995, then-Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu named the university after the legendary actor-turned-politician. However, the YSRCP government in 2022 changed the name of the university to Dr YSRUHS after late Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR). The Assembly passed a Bill in September 2022 renaming the university after YSR amid protests by the TDP members.