AP has lost its pride of place: Yanamala

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council and TDP leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Thursday termed “unfortunate” Andhra Pradesh slipping to the 20th place in the exports preparedness index for 2020 released by the NITI-Aayog.

In a statement, Mr. Ramakrishnudu said the neighbouring Telugu State of Telangana stood in the 6th position in overall exports rankings even though it has no coastline benefits. It was indeed deplorable that AP standing in the 7th position among the eight coastal States in the country reflected the utter failure of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s policies. The NITI-Aayog has also pulled up the AP government for lagging behind.

The State has 11 minor ports and one major port, but it has fared poorly. Among the southern States, AP slipped to the bottom of the pyramid in terms of performance. All this was due to the neglect of the industrial sector by the government, he said.

‘Flight of investors’

Mr. Ramakrishnudu said no worthwhile industrial policy had been brought forward in the past 15 months. No growth was achieved in exports. The industrial policy framed by the TDP regime was scrapped out of “political vendetta” which eventually led to the present state of affairs. No industrialist was coming forward to make investments in the State, he said.

He asserted that the TDP regime worked hard to attract ₹2 lakh crore investments every year which came to ₹ 10 lakh crore in its five-year rule. Had the party come to power, it would have brought another ₹2.5 lakh crore investments in the past 15 months. In contrast, the YCP regime had driven away investors, he added.