Future belongs to you

Amaravati: Taking a trip down memory lane, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday said that he wanted to become an IAS officer during his college days but ended up in public life, while replying to a question from a youngster at Grievance Hall in Undavalli on the occasion of launching the Mukhymantri Yuvanestham, a new unemployment allowance scheme by the state government.

"I later realized that it would be better if he became a politician. He said that if he became a politician, he could control all IAS officials. But journey in public life was quite hard but succeeded in becoming an MLA and then a minister and finally Chief Minister," he said.

Naidu, while fielding questions from the youth, did not spare the BJP for betraying the trust the people of AP had reposed in it by not keeping its promise of awarding Special Category Status. To a query from one Mahesh, an engineering student from Eluru, Naidu explained to him the raw deal that the Centre had meted out to the state.

"What was the sin committed by five crore people of Andhra?," he asked and wondered why injustice was done even when taxes were being paid to the Centre by the people. Nobody had the power to deny what the Constitution had promised for the state and that he would fight till the Centre relents and does justice to the state, he said.

To a query from Shaik Murtuza, a law student of Andhra University, the CM sought to allay his fears that after the elections the Mukhyamantri Yuvanestham will disappear. "The scheme will continue," he declared.

Harika from KL University asked Chandrababu Naidu when the IT sector would be developed in Visakhapatnam and Amaravati on lines of Hyderabad. Reacting to it, he said the state was now registering all-round development and apart from hardware, the automobile and agro-industries were surging ahead.

In the future, the world would arrive in Amaravati and begin work here, he assured them. Youth should not lose heart, he said. The Chief Minister told Basha and Loknath Yadav, postgraduates from Srikrishnadevaraya University, that steps would be taken to recruit more local people in industries set up in the state, including Kia Motors in Anantapur district, Foxcon at Sri City in Nellore and many others.

When a student Praveen Kumar wanted to know whether they should pay bribes to get government jobs, the Chief Minister clarified that he was striving for corruption-free governance. If any officer wants even a single rupee as bribe, then the citizens should complain on 1100, he suggested.

Injustice would not be done to students who are now in the phase of Fourth Industrial Revolution. The youth had the power to rule the world. To another question from Gopi, a student from Nagarjuna University, Chandrababu Naidu promised measures to ensure that state universities would not be affected by private institutions and universities.

He also assured Sravani of Andhra University that equal opportunities for women were being created and pointed out that women accounted for 95 per cent employees in Foxcon and 99 per cent in Brandix units.

He utilised the occasion to lambast YSRCP president YS Jaganmohan Reddy for his criticism against the Mukhyamantri Yuvanestham scheme. The Chief Minister said that when character is lost, everything was lost. “Jaganmohan Reddy committed crimes by misusing power of his late father," he said.