AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Calls for Hard Work Through 2026

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has said the state government has fared well in 2025 by fulfilling the expectations of the people, and called for harder work to meet the goals set for 2026.

Naidu chaired a high-level review meeting with the ministers and secretaries at the secretariat on Monday. He said, “We are able to instill confidence among the people on the government’s performance as we could implement several welfare schemes under the Super Six banner, and take up rapid development of the state in several sectors.”

This, he said, was “despite the poor financial status that we inherited from the previous administration, wherein we were not even able to raise loans from any source.”

Naidu listed a series of welfare schemes being implemented by the TD-led government in the state like the Thallik Vandanam, with an allotment of Rs 10,909 crore to benefit 67 lakh students remitting a specified amount into the bank accounts of their mothers, to enable the kids to pursue their education.

Under Stree Shakti, an estimated 3.5 crore women travelled in state buses, wherein we spent Rs 1,114 crore so far. Under Annadata Sukhibhava, some Rs 6,310 crore was remitted to 46 lakh farmers, he said, and added that under the Deepam 2.0 scheme, nearly two crore domestic gas cylinders were distributed to women at a cost of Rs 2,684 crore.

Naidu claimed credit for achieving a new milestone by distributing social security pensions worth Rs 50,000 crore in the last one-and-half-a-years, and asserted that so far, they had implemented 70 major schemes, programmes and works in the state.

Referring to the opposition YSRC’s criticism equating AP’s capital city Amaravati with a cemetery earlier, Naidu called the Amaravati project inspiring for the reason that the present government was making farmers stakeholders in the project.

On the Polavaram, Naidu called it a great irrigation project and asserted that once its execution was completed, no state in south India could compete with AP in matters of speedy economic growth.

He noted, “Nearly 3,000 tmc-ft of Godavari water is wasted into the sea per annum. By taking up the Pattiseema project, we are sending the Godavari water to Krishna delta and the saved water in Srisailam is being diverted to Rayalaseema region for its development.”

The proposed Polavaram Nallamala Sagar link project, he said, was aimed at sending water to the Rayalaseema region and Prakasam district, he said, and clarified that the project could cause no loss to anyone. He asked what could be wrong in taking the water released from upstream being diverted from Polavaram to Nallamalla Sagar, to use it for development of the Rayalaseema region.

Naidu asserted that when Telanana was taking up the construction of various projects, he never objected to it in the hope that both the Telugu states could utilise the Godavari water in the best possible ways. “We would complete the Polavaram irrigation project under phase-1 with the dam’s height at 41.15 metres during the Godavari Pushkaralu and dedicate it to the nation.”

So, he said, was the case with the Bhogapuram international airport . “We would complete the project and dedicate it to the nation shortly.”

Naidu said, “We could protect the Visakha Steel Plant as the Centre extended a financial support of Rs 12,000 crore.” He vowed to fulfill the wishes of Andhras by “ensuing that the VSP is able to sustain itself.”

On investments, he said AP attracted 25 per cent of the investments that came to the country from abroad. Referring to the CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam, he said that if all the commitments were fulfilled, it would help generate 16 lakh jobs.

“Our government had approved investments of Rs 8.74 lakh through the state investment promotion board. This would help generate employment on a large scale,” he said.

Google, he noted, would set up a $15 billion AI Data Centre in Visakhapatnam, while the foundation would be laid in Amaravati for a Quantum Valley in six months.

Taking credit for reducing power tariff in the state, Naidu vowed to bring down the cost of power to Rs 1.19 per unit soon.