Reforms should have human face: Reddy

Hyderabad, May 4 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today said reforms in India resulted in stagnation in growth of agriculture, deceleration in growth rate of employment in industry including manufacture and differences in the social matrix, leading to resentment and vulnerability of under-privileged.

Calling for reforms with a human face in his address at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), on the second day, 'Advantage India Day', Dr Reddy said the state government was formulating a policy basket with economic reforms in the context of socio-political realities in the state.

His government had formulated programmes for improving irrigation. 'We are endeavouring to harness natural perennial water to get over 8.5 million lakh acres under assured irrigation.' Agrarian surplus would drive the economy to shift to secondary and tertiary sectors and the lot of farmers was bound to improve.

Dr Reddy said over five decades of planned development had not enabled accomplishment of what Pandit Nehru outlined in his Tryst with Destiny speech. His government launched the 'INDIRAMMA' project to accomplish this huge task, to cater to needs of shelter, safe drinking water, access to villages and health care, in three years.

Stating his government was giving top priority to employment generation, he said tourism had been recognised as an important sector for this. The state had a huge infrastructure base. The effort was to modernise places of production.

AP had policies in place and was recording high growth rates in the IT export sector, which was providing jobs to 1,52,000 people.

Andhra Pradesh accounted for 33.3 percent of total export of bulk drugs and pharmaceuticals from the country.

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