AP Budget set for increase: YSR

Hyderabad, Mar 17 (UNI) The Andhra Pradesh Government will be able to increase the size of the state budget from the present Rs 63,000 crore to Rs one lakh crore in the next two years, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said today.

''This will not be unachievable target, given the fact the state is witnessing allround development,'' Dr Reddy said at the concluding session of the State Level Bankers' Committee meet here.

The farm sector was paying good dividends so was the case with the industry and investments were coming in a big way to the state.

He urged bankers not to insist on personal security from beneficiaries of state-specific schemes like the Rajiv Gruhakalpa and Rajiv Abhudaya Yojana schemes and accept group security. Dr Reddy also wanted them to step up advances to the State Micro Irrigation Project.

Informing his government had taken up an Integrated Land Development Scheme on pilot basis at a cost of Rs 25 crore in the Nizamabad, the smallest district in the state, Dr Reddy said the state will have a world-class fool-proof land record system in place in the next two years and the bankers could easily assess the authenticity of the mortgaged property.

His government was also working out a model insurance scheme for the benefit of shepherds who lost a part of their livestock due to outbreak of disease.

The Chief Minister complimented the bankers for being proactive in stepping up advances to the priority sector at Rs 52,158 crore by December 2005, constituting 66.15 per cent of total advances as against RBI norm of 40 per cent.

UNI SM GM 1957