Feb Roundup: Education reforms, election war cry dominate month

Amaravati, Feb 29: The war cry drumming up preparedness for the ensuing elections besides Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy taking forward educational reforms and keeping date with welfare calendar were the prominent events during the month.

The Chief Minister displayed abundant poise in exhorting the YSRCP cadre to have poll preparedness to make a clean sweep of 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in the ensuing elections. The Chief Minister attended two largely-attended ‘Siddham’ public meetings of the Party cadre at Denduluru and Raptadu besides unveiling the road map to Party MLAs, coordinators, district unit presidents, Mandal and Secretariat-level conveners and leaders from all constituencies on spreading the welfare message and seeking voters’ blessings.

Outlining the necessity of YSRCP posting another historic win in forthcoming elections, he spared no efforts in stressing on the need to publicize the good done to the people through transparent implementation of welfare schemes while exposing the failures of TDP in sticking to election promises.

Aimed at making Government school students globally competitive, Chief Minister took revolutionary reforms in education sector to take it to the next level. Under his guidance, Government signed MoU with the edX, a leading global e-learning platform that conducts Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) enabling 12 lakh students in the State pursue chosen courses from nearly 2000 modern and emerging subjects. The MoU is the first of its kind in the world.

During the month, the Chief Minister also threw the gauntlet to TDP president Chandrababu Naidu on his home turf while releasing water from Kuppam Branch Canal and fulfilling the promise given to people of the constituency in 2022. At every public interaction, he sent across a clear message to the people that the slew of welfare schemes would continue only if YSRCP continues in power.

Keeping date with welfare calendar, he released Rs. 78 crore for YSR Kalyanamasthu, Shadi Tohfa and Rs. 1294crore for YSR Rythu Bharosa–PM Kisan and YSR Sunna Vaddi Panta Runalu besides launching the distribution of registered conveyance deeds of house sites to 31.19 lakh beneficiaries who received house site pattas under Navaratnalu-Pedalandariki Illu. The Chief Minister also distributed house site pattas afresh to 20,480 beneficiaries in Ongole Municipal Corporation limits.

During his visit to New Delhi, the Chief Minister called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought quick resolution of the bifurcation-related issues besides meeting Finance Minister Nirmala Sitgaranan and seeking funds for the development of the State. The Chief Minister also shared honours with the Prime Minister who virtually inaugurated several higher educational institutions like IIM, IIT, IIIT and IISER across the State from New Delhi. He also gave away Seva Mitra, Seva Ratna and Seva Vajra awards to the best village and ward secretariat volunteers besides participating in the grand finale of the Aadudam Andhra sports festival and presenting trophies to the winners.

The Chief Minister, along with Sarada Peetham seer Sri Swarupanandendra Saraswati Swamiji, had a darshan of Goddess Raja Syamala at Chinna Mushidivada near Visakhapatnam besides participating in the temple rituals. Among the most prominent persons who called on the Chief Minister during the month included the newly elected Rajya Sabha members YV Subba Reddy, Golla Babu Rao and Meda Raghunatha Reddy.