Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday promised upgradation of the existing medical college and government general hospital at Anantapur into a super speciality hospital at a cost of Rs. 150 crore, with Central assistance.
Mr Naidu, who arrived at Puttaparthy airport in a private aircraft at around 10:30 a.m., one and a half hours behind schedule, drove straight to Prasanthi Nilayam to pay his respects at the ‘ Maha Samadhi’ of Sathya Sai Baba, following which he held a meeting with the trust members of the Sathya Sai Central Trust.
Later, an interactive meeting with the self-help group (SHG) women, he said the government had kept its promise to waive their loans.
“In the next five years, the drought prone Anantapur district, which has given us the maximum seats after West Godavari, would be developed in such a way that drought and poverty would fear to set foot in the district,” said Mr Naidu even as SHG women, on behalf of all the SHG’s in the district, handed him over a cheque for Rs 1 crore towards the building of ‘Navyandhra Pradesh’.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Naidu said he would take special interest on development of the district and said an ‘Adarsha township’ would be created out of Hindupur while Rs 250 crore would be allotted to the Ananta Venkata Reddy Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanthi (AVRHNSS) project forthwith.
Mr Naidu also promised to take special interest in upgrading the existing airport at Puttaparthy and increase the connectivity with Bangalore to turn Puttaparthy into a famous pilgrim town in the next few years.
On the occasion, he also unveiled a Rs 42-crore ‘Mega Tourism Project’ to develop tourism infrastructure at 30 tourist places in the district which include forts, temples and a bird sanctuary, besides increasing the connectivity between these places of tourist interest.
However, throughout the tour of Mr Naidu, accompanied by all the TDP legislators and the two MPs from the district, the actual interaction of Mr Naidu was limited to a few children at the Vengalamma Cheruvu while the actual proposed interactive session with women at Puttaparthy turned out to be a session dominated by the speech of Mr Naidu himself..
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Andhra Pradesh / Staff Reporter / Anantapur – July 24th, 2014