Jagan Mohan Reddy promises 5.6 lk rural jobs by October

Hyderabad: YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, in his first public address as Andhra Pradesh chief minister, vowed to create 5.6 lakh jobs in villages by October and review all the contracts given by the previous Chandrababu Naidu government for fraud.

Reddy, who took oath on Thursday as Andhra’s second chief minister since its bifurcation in 2014, announced a 50% increase in the pension for senior citizens to Rs 3,000 per month. To be implemented in phases over four years starting June, this was a key promise on the election manifesto of his YSR Congress. Reddy said it was the first order he signed as chief minister.

Accusing the Janma Bhoomi committees appointed by the erstwhile Naidu regime of corruption, Reddy said his government would appoint village volunteers in their place to ensure corruption-free delivery of welfare schemes. Under this plan, as many as four lakh youth would be provided with government jobs. Each village volunteer would have to take care of delivering welfare schemes to 50 households for a monthly salary of Rs 5,000.


While these volunteers would be appointed by August 15, the government would also set up village secretariats to administer transparent sanctioning of schemes. Reddy said his government would provide 1.6 lakh jobs under this where each village secretariat would have ten posts, to be filed by October 2 this year.

TO REVIEW CONTRACTS
Reiterating his allegation of large-scale corruption in various contracts awarded by the erstwhile Telugu Desam Party government, Reddy said his government would terminate fraudulent contracts and award those through a reverse tendering model to the lowest bidder.

He alleged several irregularities in the power purchase agreements by the Naidu regime, saying that wind and solar power was purchased at high tariffs to benefit certain businesses.