ANDHRA PRADESH

Advisor to government (skill training and job fair)G Sridhar Reddysaid the government is providing EMPLOYMENT opportunities even in private sector by setting up skill centres in all 175 assembly constituencies. The started 66 Skill development colleges, including three inVisakhapatnam. He distributed the appointment letters of various multinational companies and course completion certificates to the youth who completed the training in Skill Hub Centres

The Andhra Pradesh Government released Rs 686 crores for the Vidya Deevena Scheme, an Education assistance scheme, as the third tranche of the scheme.

Highlights:

The Vidya Deevena Scheme grants scholarships to students who cannot pay their college fees.

It is a fee reimbursement scheme, where the students pay the educational institutes, and the government pays the students, but No total compensation.

Total compensation includes college fees, hostel fees, mess fees, but the scheme compensates for only college fees.

The scheme mainly concentrates on students exploring higher education.

If the student has less than 75% attendance and students in private or deemed universities, the fee disbursement is not done.

The scheme is not appropriate for distant Learning and the NRI quota.

The official website to apply for the Vidya Deevena scheme is NAVASAKAM.ap.gov.in.

Benefits

In 2019, the Government of Andhra Pradesh had allocated Rs 6,259 crores for fee reimbursement under the scheme, which benefitted 21.48 lakh students.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh aims for a 100% Literacy rate in the state through the scheme.

Its main aim is to fulfil the dreams of students pursuing higher education without hampering their families.

Over 2,118 students studying in private universities have availed from the scheme as of November 2021.

Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA), which represents millions of tobacco farmers and farm workers, has urged the Centre to take a relook at the high and stringent regulations as they were crippling farming sector.

The association said that low production of the crop, lack of export incentives and non-stop smuggling of illegal/contraband stocks also need close monitoring by the Centre to bail out the tobacco farmers from the red.

India is the fourth largest and fastest growing illegal cigarette market in the world. The illicit cigarette market in India has doubled from a level of 13.5 billion sticks in 2006 to 30 billion sticks in 2021.

Refuting allegations against the state governments decision to procure power from the Corporation of India, energy ministerBalineniSrinivasa Reddy said there will be no burden on discoms due to the purchase fromSECI.

He said the government will procure about 7,000 MW ofsolar powerfrom SECI, starting 2024, in different tranches to meet the demand of 18 lakh farmers.

In a statement Friday, Balineni said the tariff proposed by SECI is considered to be the lowest and purchases will be transparent as it is a public sector undertaking. He said the tariff proposed by SECI has to be approved by theAndhra PradeshElectricity Regulatory Commission as per the electricity Act.

The minister said solar power purchased from SECI would be utilised to provide nine hours of supply to the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture sector in the day through a special discom that will ensure free power to farmers for the next 25 years.

Municipal schools, which are catering to Education needs of the poor children from urban slums, are struggling with inadequate and proper monitoring system. With the government setting its focus mainly on strengthening rural schools, themunicipal schoolswere neglected.

The absence of a separate directorate to monitor the functioning of municipal schools has become a setback in resolving the issues of teachers, students and other staff.
The states municipal school education system, commissioned 163 years ago, is one of the oldest streams in the country. Academicians say that the school managements continuing the old rules are leading to disorder in urban public schools.

In 1966, the Kothari Commission suggested appointment of school supervisors. The commission had also observed that school supervisors should have expertise in education psychology, childrens psychology and pedagogy. Several decades have passed since then, but nothing has changed in the field.

Only Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts have seen a slight increase in the number of training centers in the last three consecutive years, while the centers in the rest of the 11 districts have come down.

In a big boost to the development of tourism attractions, the has taken up Coastal Zone Tourism Master Plan (CZTMP) in all the 12 coastal districts. Joint teams comprising officials from tourism, Fisheries department and fisheries university have started the massive exercise to identify the suitable locations to develop as beaches along the coast. The teams have already identified nearly 289 beaches while the survey was completed last week and reports were forwarded to the district collectors.
The state government has asked the district collectors to finalise the consultations with the stakeholders and finalise the report for development of beaches in their respective districts. The district collectors have been asked to complete the work before the AP Coastal Zone Management Authority (APCZMA) notified the draft Coastal Regulatory Zone, 2019 maps. The finalization of plans for development of the beaches have been put on fast track and decided to complete the work before the CRZ maps are notified. This will help push the Growth of entire coastal area in attraction of the tourists, said APTDC managing director K Kannababu.

Interestingly, Srikakulam, considered to be the backward district in the state, is likely to get major push as the survey teams identified highest number of beaches-60 in the district. While Nellore district has 40 potential spots to develop as beaches, Bapatla district has about 28 points. The famous beach city,Visakhapatnamhas around 24 spots in the entire district. Subsequent to the finalization of the potential tourist spots along the coast, the state government will rope in private developers to take up design and develop the beaches with resorts and recreation facilities.

Meanwhile, the state government has set several projects on fast track. Eco-tourism projects are coming up in five locations while Oberai group is getting ready for the construction of five star hotels in five separate tourist locations including Gandikota, Horsley Hills and Pichuka Lanka. While DPRs are ready for two ropeway projects, feasibility study to take up ropeway projects in three other locations is underway. State government signed MoUs with private developers at GIS with an expected Investment of 20,000 crore in tourism projects in which the projects worth nearly 10,000 crore were pipelined.

State panchayat raj minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy laid the foundation stone for a project interlinking the Galeru-Nagari and the Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanthi projects, aimed at ensuring water supply to the perennially drought hit Chittoor district.

The project will be grounded at a cost of Rs 4,373 crore near Molakalavari palli village in Tamballapalli assembly constituency of Chittoor district.