Water accord historic, says Governor

Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan has stated that Telangana State has plans to achieve a Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growth rate of 15 per cent in the coming financial year by preparing the budget ensuring that its resources are effectively utilised to address needs of people and meet their aspirations.

In his address to the joint sitting of the budget session of Telangana Legislature here on Thursday, the Governor said the session was on when the plans to realise the dreams of Telangana people were taking shape. He said his government had exhibited strength, resilience and commitment to meet the needs of people during its 21-month journey so far.

Listing out various development and welfare programmes initiated by the State Government the Governor said: “The innovative policies and programmes formulated and implemented by my government are attracting the national and international attention. The inter-State issue of sharing the river Godavari water has been resolved by my government by signing a historic agreement with Maharashtra”.

He stated that economy of the State was slated to grow at 11.7 per cent in 2015-16 as per the advance estimates of GSDP as against the projected national growth rate of 8.6 per cent. The State’s GSDP was estimated to be Rs.5.83 lakh crore in 2015-16 at current prices.

Although the adverse seasonal conditions had enabled the agriculture and allied activities register a meagre growth of 0.8 per cent, industries and manufacturing sectors were likely to grow at 8.3 per cent and services sector at 14.9 per cent over the previous year. The per capita income was likely to increase to Rs.1,43,023 in 2015-16 from Rs.1,29,182 in 2014-15, compared to the national per capita income of Rs.93,231 in 2015-16.

The Governor stated that a total of 6,100 villages and 12 municipalities were targeted to be given treated water by December this year under Mission Bhageeratha and all arrangements were in place to supply nine hours of free power to agriculture sector in day time.

He concluded his address with a piece of advice to the members of Legislature to discharge their responsibilities in a spirit of mutual cooperation.