Minister Kolusu Parthasarathy said that children's education in school under the previous YSRCP government had suffered.
Andhra Pradesh CM conducting first Cabinet Meeting (X)
As many as 16,347 teachers posts would be filled in Andhra Pradesh under “Mega DSC” (District Selection Committee) to improve standard of education in government schools, the state Cabinet decided on Monday, 24 June. This was the first Cabinet Meeting since the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP government came to power in the state.
The state cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the state secretariat in Amaravati’s Velagapudi, discussed the issue in detail and decided to fill the posts as the first measure in toning up school education.
The other decisions include annulment of Land Titling Act, hiking monthly social security pension from ₹3,000 to ₹4,000 per beneficiary, revival of Anna Canteens to provide tasty and healthy food at ₹5 to the poor and taking up skill census and improving youths’ skills to help them land jobs.
Briefing media persons on the decisions taken at the cabinet meeting, Information and Public Relations Minister Kolusu Parthasarathy said that children’s education in school under the previous YSRCP government had suffered as no recruitment of teachers took place. Though Teachers Eligibility Test should be conducted every six months, it was not done for the last three years.
He said this had denied those who wanted to better their score in TET, as when recruitment is made under the DSC, 20 percent weightage will begiven to the TET score. The Chief Minister has issued instructions that the school education to be improved keeping in mind the direction from the National Education Policy (NEP).
Referring to the abolition of the Land Titling Act, the minister said that the cabinet took a serious view of the way the previous government had brought in the Act, which was quite harmful to the interests of the small and medium farmers. As several provisions of the Act raised suspicions over the intent behind them, the cabinet wanted it to be rescinded. He said that the argument of the previous government that the Act was brought in consonance with the central act passed by the BPP-led NDA government did not hold water.
Parthasarathy said that on closer look, several provisions were at variance with those in the central Act. The cabinet also wondered why the YSRCP government had brought the Act post-haste at a time when none of the BJP ruled states had yet gotten around to bringing in the legislation.
He said the Act had specified High Court as the appellate authority though it is usually civil courts. In case of any dispute, under the Act, the poor farmer had to go the High Court which would be prohibitively expensive for him as lawyers charge high fee. Further, there was no clarity on who would be the title registration officer – whether it would be political appointment, or an official or from judicial fraternity.
The minster said that the cabinet cleared the proposal for enhancement of amount payable as social security pensions. The government will pay ₹4,000 per month per beneficiary from 1 July as social security along with arrears since April. In other words, the first payment would be ₹7,000 which includes enhanced pension of ₹4,000 and ₹3,000 as arrears at the rate of ₹1,000 per month since April. This enhancement will benefit 65.3 lakh beneficiaries.
The state government will bear ₹811 crore per annum on the enhancement alone. The arrears of ₹.3,000 will place a burden of ₹1,650 crore on the government per year while the entire scheme will cost the government a whopping ₹4,408 crore.
Regarding Anna canteens, about 183 canteens will begin in functioning in August and about 20 more will be opened a little later. In another decision, the cabinet approved the proposal to rename Dr YSR University of Health Sciences as Dr NTR University of Heath Sciences. In 1983, when the university was formed, it was named after NTR, but the previous government had re-named it after YSR.
With an intent to stamp down the transport and sale of drugs and ganja, the cabinet constituted a committee of five ministers to study the issue and suggest measures. The committee will comprise ministers for Home, Education, Prohibition & Excise, Tribal, and Health.
The cabinet also decided to release seven white papers, one every day beginning from this month end to let the people know what had gone wrong in respective departments under YSRCP dispensation. The white papers will be on Polavaram, Amaravati, Energy, Environment, Liquor, Law and Order and Finances.
The cabinet has not taken any decision on whether to continue the village and ward volunteers’ system in the state, brought in by the previous government.
(Edited by Neena)
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