3.5 million mobile phones produced in Andhra every month: Governor

Amaravati, Jan 30 (IANS) One in every 5 mobile handsets produced in India is now Made in Andhra and over 3-3.5 million phones are produced every month in the state today, Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan said on Wednesday.

Addressing both Houses of the state Legislature on the first day of the Budget session, he highlighted the rapid strides made by the state in the industrial sector.

He said that Andhra Pradesh was proud to have attracted one of the single largest FDIs in a greenfield project in India in recent times.

"Indonesian pulp and paper giant, Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP), is setting up not only India's but perhaps the largest paper mill in a single site in the world at Ramayapatnam in Prakasam district with an investment of Rs 24,500 crore."

The state government recently entered into an MoU with the Adani Group to set up a renewable powered 5GW Data Centre in Visakhapatnam with a proposed investment of Rs 70,000 crore, he said.

The Governor claimed that Andhra Pradesh made achievements on all fronts during the last four and a half years despite no support from the Centre.

He said had the Centre been supportive, the magnitude of achievement would have been much more.

While the state re-organization had put tremendous stress on the financial and other resources, the government's irrevocable commitment diligently spearheaded by the leadership has helped overcome the difficulties.

With the Budget session likely to be the last session before simultaneous elections to the state Assembly and Lok Sabha, the Governor's address focussed on the performance and also targeted the Centre for not fulfilling the commitments made in the AP Re-organization Act, 2014 and other assurances made by the then Prime Minister.

"The State's growth performance averaging at 10.66% (compared to all India growth rate of 7.3%), the highest in the country during this period, only points to the spectacular performance cutting across sectors, despite non-cooperation and lack of support from the Centre," he said.

He pointed out that agriculture and allied sectors have recorded a 11 per cent growth rate, the highest in the country, compared to national average growth rate of 2.4 per cent.

"Countless requests made by the state to the Union government for financial and infrastructural handholding to bring our infant state to a level playing field with its neighbouring states have literally fallen on deaf ears.

"While the state bifurcation was imposed on us and we have inherited several problems, the apathetic attitude of the Centre proved even more agonizing."

Narasimhan said the shocking decision of the Union government to take back the funds of Rs 350 crore credited to the State exchequer for taking up developmental works in the seven backward districts not only disturbs the continuity of works but also destroys the credibility of the Centre.

"On top of all, the Union government's decision not to heed to our legitimate demand of according Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh citing incorrect and incoherent reasons is a major setback for the State in its development pursuit."

He said the government was now moving ahead with a saturation approach. It has achieved saturation in areas of benefit transfer, basic infrastructure and service provisioning.

The growth of industry and manufacturing sectors in Andhra Pradesh has outpaced industrial growth in India over the past three years.

In 2017-18, growth rates of industrial sector were 4.40 percent for India and 8.49 percent for Andhra Pradesh.

The Governor said the state government was tracking 2,633 large and mega projects with committed investment of Rs 15.77 lakh crore with an employment potential of 33.30 lakh envisaged through the MoUs during partnership summits.