Nellore: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday announced sops to the small granite companies, by way of fulfilling a promise he made during his pre-election Pada Yatra in Chimakurthy — the hub for granite industries in Prakasam district.
The Chief Minister made the announcement before a large gathering after unveiling the statues of his father, former chief minister YS Rajashekar Reddy and former Darsi MLA Buchepalli Subbareddy at Chimakurthy.
Jagan said a slab system will be implemented in this respect for the granite industry whereas a sum of Rs 27,000 will be provided each month to the district’s single-blade processing units and Rs 54,000 per month for multi-blade processing units that purifies raw granite up to 22 cubic metres. For the processing units in Srikakulam and Rayalaseema regions, Rs 22,000 and Rs 44,000 will be given for single and multi-blade granite processing units every month.
The CM said the government had already issued GO in this regard and over 7,000 units would be benefited.
He said that the slab system was introduced during the YSR rule, but when the TD rule came, Chandrababu Naidu withdrew the initiative in 2016, hurting these units.
The Chief Minister also announced a reduction of Rs 2 per unit in power bills to small granite units, from the existing tariff of Rs 6.3 and Rs 6.7 per unit. With both the slab system and reduction in power bills, an expense of Rs 350 crore will be borne by the state government every year, Jagan said.
After unveiling the statues, the CM said great leaders will stay in the hearts of people forever. An Ambedkar statue will also be unveiled in Vijayawada, on April 14, he said.
Jagan reminisced about the welfare schemes like free power to farmers, fee reimbursement to students, and the Aarogyasri that were implemented during the YSR term. The present government has fulfilled 95 per cent of the promises it made to the people in the 2019 poll manifesto in the last three years, he noted.
Speaking on the Veligonda project, he said Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy had initiated the project and completed 11.58km of works for the first tunnel at a stretch of 18.8km, and completed 8.74km of the second tunnel of 118.78km stretch. Between 2014 and 2019, the TD government had only completed 4.33km and 2.35km of works for both tunnels, he said.
The Chief Minister said his government has completed the construction of the first tunnel and promised to complete the second tunnel by September 2023. “I would go to the next polls only after inaugurating the Veligonda project,” he said.
Jagan promised to grant Rs 20 crore for construction of a new Zilla Parishad building, make the Mogigundla pond in Thullur Mandal a mini reservoir and name it after Buchepalli Subba Reddy.
Minister Audimulapu Suresh, MLAs Balineni Srinivas, TJR Sudhakar Babu, Zilla Parishad chairperson Buchepalli Venkayamma and former Darsi MLA Buchepalli Sivaprasad were present.
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