Nidadavolu (Andhra Pradesh)

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday said the NDA would take responsibility for creating public awareness to secure reservation for women in legislative bodies.

Addressing a public meeting at Nidadavolu in East Godavari district as part of the 'Swach Andhra–Swarna Andhra' (Clean and Golden Andhra) programme, he said it was the NDA’s goal to see greater representation of women in legislatures.

"The NDA will take responsibility for securing reservation for women in legislative bodies by creating public awareness," Naidu said.

He said that although attempts had been made to provide reservation for women in legislative bodies, opposition parties led by the Indian National Congress had blocked the move in Parliament.

According to the Chief Minister, the NDA had been striving to provide reservation for women since the tenure of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, including introducing a Bill to that effect four times.

However, he accused the Congress party of backtracking and betraying women, despite the intention to ensure justice to them alongside the delimitation exercise.

Naidu also alleged that opposition parties were spreading the narrative that southern and eastern states would lose out.

He emphasised that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stated that the number of Lok Sabha seats would increase by 50 per cent.

Despite benefiting from women’s votes, he alleged that the Congress had been deceiving them since 1996, adding that parties that do injustice to women would not survive.

A Constitution Amendment Bill to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, along with an increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats, was defeated in the Lower House on Friday for want of the required two-thirds majority.

Further, referring to the issue of accumulated waste in the state, Naidu alleged that the previous YSRCP government had left Andhra Pradesh in a state of severe mismanagement.

He said the TDP-led NDA government had been working for the past 15 months to address the problem, claiming that while 150 tonnes of waste had been left behind, 114 tonnes had already been cleared.

By June, Naidu said the government aimed to convert 100 per cent of waste into usable or profitable material by setting up processing plants worth Rs 603 crore, among other initiatives.

By December, he said more than seven lakh kitchen gardens and one lakh soak pits would be created, and six additional plants would be established to convert waste into electricity.

Highlighting that the state’s green cover stood at 31.3 per cent, the CM called for increasing it to 37 per cent by 2030 and to 50 per cent by 2047.

READ MORE: Award winning Urdu litterateur Dr. Shaista Yusuf is also an entrepreneur

He also noted that Parliament had enacted a law recognising the greenfield capital city of Amaravati as the permanent capital of the state.

Naidu said that farmers had given land for Amaravati as they had reposed faith in the government.