Vijayawada: The state govt has given a Sankranti gift to various sections of people who have been waiting for pending dues for many years. It announced that it is releasing Rs 6,700 crore to clear the pending bills. Govt employees, including police, students, and small and micro entrepreneurs, will benefit from the decision.
In a review meeting chaired by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu with finance minister Payyavula Keshav, chief secretary K Vijayanand, and finance dept officials, it was decided to release the pending GPF amount of Rs 519 crore to employees. The govt also decided to release one instalment of police surrender leave encashment dues, amounting to Rs 214 crore. The pending payment of Rs 300 crore towards CPS contribution and Rs 265 crore towards TDS is also being released.
The total benefits that the employees will receive will be Rs 1,300 crore, said Keshav after the meeting. He further said that students are suffering a lot because of the pending dues towards fee reimbursement, which the previous govt did not clear. Giving credit to education minister Nara Lokesh, he said that Rs 780 crore will be released for the benefit of 6.5 lakh students, which includes SC/ST student scholarships. Lokesh chased me every day to release the amount, he added.
“The govt has also decided to clear the bills of contractors in a phased manner. In the first phase, bills up to Rs 10 lakh will be released for the benefit of 26,000 contractors, which would be around Rs 586 crore. Land acquisition beneficiaries who gave away their lands for various projects and are waiting for compensation are also covered under this,” he said.
The govt also came to the rescue of small and micro industries that are struggling to get their bills and incentives from the govt. Keshav said as many as 651 companies and 6,600 individual micro entrepreneurs will get Rs 91 crore towards various dues. Giving priority to health and energy sectors, the govt released Rs 500 crore for NTR Vaidya Seva and medicine purchase bills and Rs 500 crore towards power subsidy reimbursement. On the long-pending issue of Amaravati farmers’ annuity, the govt will pay Rs 241 crore to farmers before the Sankranti festival.
Lashing out at the previous YSRCP govt, Keshav said 94 central govt schemes were discontinued either by not giving utilisation certificates or matching grants. All these schemes are now revived by paying Rs 6,000 crore, he said.
