On the 6th of January, the Central Government announced a reward for Andhra Pradesh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to extend a reward of Rs. 344 crores to the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy led the Andhra Pradesh Government.
The Government of India (GoI) said the reward has been offered to the selective states for implementing three quarters of the civil service reforms.
Andhra Pradesh has been at the forefront in implementing the reforms of the One Nation One Ration Card, Ease of Doing Business, urban and local organisations schemes of the Central Government.
Beside Andhra Pradesh, another state which received the reward money is Madhya Pradesh (Rs. 660 crores.)
With this, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh became the first two states to complete three out of the four citizen centric reforms.
The reward has been given based on criteria of implementation of three out of four reforms which includes One Nation One Ration Card, Ease of doing Business Reform, Urban Local Body/Utility Reform and Power Sector Reform.
Only Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have got this financial aid so far.
Under this scheme, an amount of Rs. 2,000 crores is earmarked. This amount is available only to those states which carry out at least 3 out of the 4 reforms specified by the Ministry of Finance by the 31st of December 2020.
This announcement is said to be a boon to these two states, especially when the Nation is fighting the economic crisis due to the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19.
The Scheme was announced by the Finance Ministry of India on 12th October, 2020 as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package.
The additional financial assistance for the capital expenditure is in addition to the permission of Rs.14,694 crores, issued to these states for extra borrowings for completing the reforms.
