andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam
‘Arogyasri’ first of its Staff kind in country, says KonathalaVISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh is the first State to introduce the health insurance scheme ‘Rajiv Arogyasri” for the poor in the country, Commercial Taxes Minister Konathala Ramakrishna has said.Participating in the distribution of RajivArogyasri’ health cards at Koppaka, Batlapudi and Golagam in Anakapalle mandal on Sunday, he said the poor could get treatment costing up to Rs.2 lakhs in corporate hospitals under the programme.Stating that welfare programmes spending thousands of crores of rupees were introduced by the YS Rajasekhar Reddy Government, he asserted all the eligible would derive benefit and politics would not come in the way.Besides catering to welfare, the andhrapradesh government had also waived Rs.1,800 crores of loans taken through SC, ST and BC corporations.Priority programmesAmong the other priority programmes was extending loans at 25 paise interest and in Anakapalle mandal alone so far Rs.27 crores of loans were sanctioned.For the academic uplift of the poor students from the rural areas, IIITs were launched, Mr. Ramakrishna said. Two students were selected from Koppaka for admission.The Minister assured the villagers that extending bank loan to Tirumaleswara Rao, who could not take up the course for lack of financial support, would be taken up with the officials concerned. The minister gave away Rs.10,000 donated by Kota Subba Reddy to the student.
Additional classrooms
ZP Chairman G.Ramamurthy Naidu inaugurated additional classrooms being constructed in Koppaka panchayat under Rajiv Vidya Mission at a cost of Rs.6.2 lakhs and inaugurated the panchayat building constructed at an outlay of Rs.3 lakhs under the Assembly Constituency Development Fund.
