Fortunate to work under Naidu's leadership, says Vemireddy
As part of ongoing 'Suparipalanalo Tholi Adugu' programme, the MP along with Kavali MLA Dagumati Venkata Krishna Reddy has inaugurated Rs 6-crore worth various developmental programmes at Chelamcharla village in Kavali rural mandal on Monday.
Speaking on thet occasion, the MP said that during his tours for 20 times to New Delhi as Chief Minister, 'Chandrababu Naidu has brought several projects worth crores of rupees to AP as no Chief Minister earlier has done to protect the interests of the State.
While saying that Kavali was his native constituency, the MP has assured the people that he would develop the area spending funds under MP Local Area Development Scheme (MP Lads).
The MP said that unemployed youth of Kavali constituency would have jobs as the works are under progress for establishment of airport and BPCL company in Dagadarthi mandal in a war-footing.
The MP has recalled that he has established a Drinking Water Plant (DWP) under VPR foundation in 2018 which is uninterruptedly continuing till date. Stating that there are 200 DWPs existing in Nellore district, the MP said that the VPR Foundation would establish more to cater to the needs of people.
Kavali MLA Dagumati Venkata Krishna Reddy has said that Chelamcharla village was witnessing much development. Recently a road was laid and tap connections were being provided to every house under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).
The MLA has disclosed that it was proposed to establish power sub-station at Siripuram village to overcome low voltage problem very soon. On the occasion, the MP and MLA visited every house and explained the welfare schemes being implemented by the TDP-led coalition government.
Party leaders P Alekhya, A Ramakrishna, M Venkateswara Rao, Ramprasad and others were present.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
28 minutes ago
- Indian Express
‘Not viable': Bhubaneswar metro project hangs in balance as Odisha govt cancels tender
Uncertainty looms over the Bhubaneswar Metro Rail Project after the Odisha government has cancelled the tender for the ambitious urban mobility project initiated by the erstwhile Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government. Odisha's Housing and Urban Development Minister Krushna Chandra Mohapatra said the decision to cancel the tender was taken in view of delay in implementation and to avoid cost escalation. 'The metro project initiated by the previous government wouldn't have been viable. Our government has formed an inter-minister committee to take a fresh look into the project by studying different aspects, its viability and to submit a fresh proposal before the project,' said the urban development minister. Mohapatra said the state government would take up the project in consultation with the Centre unlike the BJD government that had decided to take it on its own. Former Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone of the project on January 1, 2024, months before the simultaneous polls. It was estimated to spend a whopping Rs 6,300 crore to develop the first phase of the project with a length of 26 km from Bhubaneswar Airport to Trisulia near Orissa high court in Cuttack with 20 stations and to extend it to Puri, Khurda and Cuttack subsequently. It was decided to develop the metro rail track and stations on elevated viaduct. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was roped in by the Odisha government to implement the project that floated the tender and engaged different agencies to take up the project. Though ground work for the metro project was started, it hit hurdles after the BJP assumed power in Odisha on June 24. Taking a dig at the BJP government over cancellation of the metro project as he said the double-engine government has 'betrayed' the people of Odisha and the decision will push Bhubaneswar 10 years back. 'It has always been our dream to develop #Bhubaneswar into a world-class city. We have been focusing on world class sports infrastructure, organising marquee international events, providing seamless modern transport and developing the IT ecosystem to transform the temple city into a world class city,' wrote Patnaik on X. Patnaik, in his post, wrote that the Bhubaneswar metro project would have reshaped the way city moves with #MoBus and other last mile connectivity complementing the city transport. 'Apart from alleviating congestion inside the city significantly, it would have been a huge catalyst for the expansion of the city. Realising the urgent need of a Metro System for enhanced mobility, we had set a watertight timeline of 2027 for Phase 1 of the project,' he noted.
Indian Express
28 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Opposition alleges Rs 70,000 crore scam as CAG flags accounting lapses in poll-bound Bihar
Just months ahead of the upcoming Assembly election in Bihar, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has flagged massive accounting lapses in the state's finances. The CAG has reported that as of March 31, 2024, as many as 49,649 Utilisation Certificates (UCs) — documents that confirm that allocated resources were utilised for the intended purpose — amounting to Rs 70,877.61 crore, had not been submitted to the Accountant General (Accounts and Entitlements) of Bihar. The findings have come as fresh ammunition for the Opposition. Bihar Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav said in a social media post, 'Thanks to Modi-Nitish, a scam of Rs 70,000 crore has taken place in Bihar. The CAG has unearthed the theft. No work was seen, but the entire expenditure was made… Modi-Nitish made history by committing a Rs 70,000 crore scam. Just like the Srijan scam, now efforts to manage this from Delhi to Patna have intensified.' According to the CAG's State Finances Audit Report for 2023-24, the non-submission of UCs violates Rule 271(e) of the Bihar Treasury Code that requires departments to submit the documents within 18 months of the financial year in which the grant is released. The report notes that the Bihar government 'did not comply' with the national accounting standards of IGAS-1, IGAS-2, and IGAS-3. The auditing body suspects that nearly Rs 70,878 crore of budgeted money has no audit clearance, and raised serious risk of fraud. 'In the absence of UCs, there is no assurance that funds disbursed have been used for the intended purpose,' the report said, adding that this level of pendency is 'fraught with the risk of embezzlement, misappropriation, and diversion of funds'. The report's year-wise data shows that Rs 14,452.38 crore worth of these pending UCs relate to grants issued up to 2016-17. In 2017-18, the pending UCs amounted to Rs 3,746.64 crore; to Rs 5,870.67 crore in 2018-19; Rs 17,980.24 crore in 2019-20 and 2020-21; Rs 16,014.34 crore in 2021-22; and Rs 12,813.34 in 2022–23. The pending UCs are heavily concentrated in a few departments, the CAG report revealed, indicating that five departments account for the majority of the unverified expenditure. The largest default is in the Panchayati Raj Department, with UCs worth Rs 28,154.10 crore pending, the report said. This is followed by the Education Department (Rs 12,623.67 crore), Urban Development and Housing Department (Rs 11,065.50 crore), Rural Development Department (Rs 7,800.48 crore), and Agriculture Department (Rs 2,107.63 crore). In addition to department-level grants, the CAG also found that large sums of grants to local bodies remained unverified. As per the CAG, as of March 31, 2024, utilisation certificates were pending for Rs 4,277.22 crore given to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and Rs 2,221.83 crore given to Rural Local Bodies under various central and state schemes, including 15th Finance Commission grants. The report also highlighted significant pendency in the submission of Detailed Contingent (DC) bills against Abstract Contingent (AC) bills. AC bills are required to draw advances by departments, and rules mandate that a department submitting an AC bill to withdraw cash must finalise the accounts by submitting a DC bill within six months. However, as on March 31, 2024, the report showed massive non-compliance, as Rs 9,205.76 crore was drawn in advance payments through 22,130 AC bills, but its expense details through DC bills were not submitted. Of this, Rs 5,577.91 crore (60.60%) pertained to advances drawn for the 'creation of Capital Assets', including major schemes under road works, education, health, rural development, etc. The CAG further noted that 1,648 AC bills, totalling Rs 1,041.12 crore, were drawn in March 2024 alone, indicating a 'rush' to exhaust budgets at the end of the financial year. The audit said that this pattern of drawing money late in the year and not reconciling it 'indicates poor public expenditure management'. 'The non-submission of DC bills within the prescribed period breaches financial discipline and enhances the risk of misappropriation of public money,' the report warned. The CAG also pointed to issues highlighting systemic lapses in financial reporting with classification of expenditure, particularly under grants-in-aid. It observed that 59.95% of the total budgeted grants-in-aid of Rs 77,600.47 crore disbursed during 2023-24 were lumped under the category, 'Others', without clearly identifying the institutions or schemes to which the funds were released. The CAG noted that without proper institutional codes, 'the amounts outstanding against all institutions could not be worked out.' This, it said, is a gap that 'affected the transparency of accounts'. The CAG also flagged significant parking of funds under the Deposit of Local Funds. According to the CAG report, funds budgeted as grants to local bodies and municipal bodies were transferred there, but never spent. Over 2019-24, the balance in these accounts swelled to Rs 30,017.64 crore. 'This amount has been shown as Revenue or Capital Expenditure in the respective years but is lying unspent in the deposit head,' the report says. It observes that this practice overstates actual expenditure, and further mentions that the 'reason for transfer of funds for parking in Deposit of Local Fund Head of Account were awaited'. The CAG also noted that internal audit mechanisms in departments were either weak or non-functional, and several previous audit recommendations had not been acted upon. It observed that delays in submission of audit replies and lack of timely action 'defeated the very purpose of the audit'. The CAG said that the combination of the issues of missing UCs, unreconciled advances, off-book deposits and generic accounting entries 'indicate lack of internal controls in the administrative departments'.
Mint
28 minutes ago
- Mint
Supreme Court may hear Delhi Govt's plea against blanket ban on overage vehicles today
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta-led Delhi government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the blanket ban on diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai is likely to hear the plea today. The plea seeks to recall the top court's October 29, 2018, order upholding the National Green Tribunal's initial directive. The plea submitted that a comprehensive policy is required to tackle pollution in Delhi-NCR, which gives vehicle fitness based on actual emission levels of individual vehicles as per scientific methods rather than implementing a blanket ban based solely on age. The plea seeks a comprehensive study by the Centre and CAQM to assess the actual environmental benefits of age-based restrictions versus emission-based criteria. Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said last week that pollution levels of vehicles should be determined based on their usage rather than their age, ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the End-of-Life (EoL) vehicle policy. "There are many vehicles that have aged, but because they haven't been used much, their pollution levels are lower. There are so many new vehicles whose age is less but have been used a lot; so we believe that the parameter to determine pollution levels must be the use of the vehicle instead of its age," Sirsa told news agency ANI. On July 24, a bench led by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran agreed to examine whether BS-VI compliant vehicles should have an end-of-life limit of 15 years for petrol vehicles and 10 years for diesel vehicles in the Delhi-NCR region. The apex court had earlier directed the transport departments of states in the National Capital Region (NCR) that all diesel vehicles more than 10 years old and petrol vehicles more than 15 years old shall not ply in terms of order of the NGT order. "All vehicles, diesel or petrol, which are more than 15 years old shall not be permitted to ply on the roads and wherever such vehicles of this age are noticed, the concerned authorities shall take appropriate steps in accordance with law, including seizure of the vehicles in accordance with the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act. "The vehicles which are more than 15 years old, will not be permitted to be parked in any public area, and they shall be towed away and challenged by the police in accordance with the law. This direction would be applicable to all vehicles without exception i.e. two wheelers, three wheelers, four wheelers, light vehicles and heavy vehicles irrespective of whether commercial or otherwise," the NGT said in its November 26, 2014, order. Recently, the Delhi government implemented 'No fuel for 15-year-old petrol and 10-year-old diesel vehicles' from July 1, 2025, in compliance with the mandate from the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). However, within two days of its implementation, the city government, facing public ire, put it on hold, citing 'operational and infrastructural challenges' as the reasons. Key Takeaways The Delhi government's vehicle age ban has been put on hold due to public backlash. The government argues for a more scientific approach to vehicle emissions based on usage, not age. The Supreme Court will review the implications of the ban and consider a comprehensive study.
