The turmoil in State in the wake of the agitation for Telangana is proving to be very costly for the growth prospects of the State, said Mr Jay Galla, the Chairman of the AP zone of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The growth of the State is being affected in the short run and in the long run, said Mr Galla, the Managing Director of Amararaja Batteries Ltd. A speedy solution should be found to the issue, he said at a press meet here on Friday. The event was organised to present the growth prospects in the State and a roadmap for creating 35 million jobs in the non-agricultural sector by 2022.

He said the general strike in Telangana for the past three weeks or so had resulted in shortage of coal in the thermal plants. This is affecting Andhra Pradesh and other States. “We have no political preferences. It matters little to us whether Andhra Pradesh is bifurcated or trifurcated, but we want a speedy and lasting solution to the problem. We are told the Government is doing everything possible to resolve the issue and we hope the efforts will succeed. Even if the Government is not in a position to resolve the larger issue of statehood, we hope it will be able to restore normalcy in the State. The power situation is grim,” he said.

Mr Galla said the unrest may have had a lasting impact on the growth of the State. “We cannot even conjecture how many industries may have turned away from the State due to the unrest, but there is no doubt the damage is quite substantial,” he said, and pleaded for an early end to the problem.

Recession

Earlier, he spoke about the impact of recession on the Indian economy on Andhra Pradesh. “We are no exception to the negative impact of recession and inflation, even though a significant positive trend is that the growth of per-capita income of the State has been increasing steadily and it is above the national average,” he said.

He said there were 19 million persons employed in the non-agricultural sectors in the State and it should steadily grow to 35 million by 2022, when India would turn 75.

“We have set ourselves that target and prepared a 10-point agenda. The agenda includes improving investment climate, creating more non-migratory jobs to check unplanned urbanisation, promoting tier-two and tier-three cities, focus on manufacturing sector and skill development. We are working jointly with the State Government which is seeking to create 15 lakh jobs in the next three years through its Rajiv Yuvakiranalu programme. It is in line with our plan of creating 35 million jobs by 2022,” he explained.

Driving school

Mr R.V.S Raju, the chairman of the CII, Vizag, said a driving school had been set up in the tribal belt of Visakhapatnam district to train the youth.

Mr K.V. Bhaskar, the former chairman of the CII, Vizag, spoke about the travails of the local industry in view of the present power situation. “We are forced to stop production for three days a week now. We have paid advances and are not receiving any coal from the Singareni collieries. The going is becoming very difficult,” he said.

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