The Andhra Pradesh Government has earned ₹3,000 crore through tendering and transparent sale of seized red sandalwood under two phases — ₹1,000 crore and ₹2,000 crore respectively, says the Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu.
The CM gave the information about revenues from red sanders, while giving a call for financial innovations to generate wealth at a meeting of bankers on Saturday. He asked bankers to take Andhra Pradesh as a pilot State for new income-generating activities, an official press release said. However, the wood having high in the far east countries was also prey to scale smuggling. The AP Government cracked down on the illegal activity and arrested many.
A recent shoot-out killing scores of alleged smugglers by police, has drawn national attention, with allegations of it being an encounter.
“While Barytes (Barite reserves) have fetched the government about ₹5,000 crore, e-PoS (point of sale) in public distribution system has saved ₹45 crore to the State exchequer in a month,” Naidu said, highlighting how the State government has been able to use this wealth for development, the release added.
Helping women folk The innovative move to hand over sand mining to women of SHGs has fetched about ₹550 crore. This has not only led to streamlining of sand mining and sale, it has also made SHG women financially independent and has become a growth driver for AP, the Chief Minister said.
The Principal Secretary (Finance) PV Ramesh said, “Banks can help us create a model where every family has a bank account and debit card (RuPay) which is linked with Unique ID (Aadhaar card), has insurance and receives government benefits through this linkage model.”
By August, the government will ensure distribution of RuPay cards to every family in the State. The RuPay card will have Unique ID number inscribed on it.
During the meeting, the State Level Bankers Committee agreed to submit an action plan with “financial inclusion innovations and growth drivers” in coordination with bankers in their next meeting.