Andhra Pradesh Cabinet congratulates armed forces on Operation Sindoor 

Amaravati, May 8 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on Thursday congratulated the Indian armed forces for successfully conducting ‘Operation Sindoor’ targeting terror hideouts in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

The Cabinet at its meeting presided over by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu here on Thursday, passed a resolution expressing solidarity with all three wings of the defence forces.

The meeting felt that the name ‘Operation Sindoor’ was appropriately chosen, reflecting the sentiments of people. It decided to use similar names for the welfare schemes in the state.

The Cabinet discussed a war-like situation on the borders. The Chief Minister discussed with ministers measures to step up the security at places like Visakhapatnam, Machilipatnam and Nagayyalanka.

The Chief Minister asked ministers to be on alert with regard to the security of the coastal area.

The Cabinet gave its approval to include the state capital, Amaravati, in the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act 2014. It gave its nod for an amendment to the law in Sub-Section (2) of Section 5 and an explanation to Section 5 of the AP State Reorganisation Act, replacing ‘Andhra Pradesh capital’ with ‘Amaravati’.

The Cabinet thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for re-launching Amaravati capital works. It also gave its nod for land allotments to various organisations in Amaravati.

Briefing media persons on the decisions taken by the Cabinet, Minister for Information and Public Relations Kolusu Parthasarathy said that the meeting cleared the move to the 281 works taken up by all the municipalities in the State under Amrut-2. This will enable all the municipalities to provide basic facilities on a large scale.

The State Council of Ministers has approved a proposal to increase the black period from five years to 10 years for registering an agency/individual as a contractor, taking into account the contractor's past experience.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naidu wants works of the Handri-Neeva Srujala Sravanthi project, which is the lifeline of Rayalaseema, to be accelerated and completed at the earliest possible.

He will be visiting the Uravakonda Assembly segment in Anantapur district on Friday to personally inspect the ongoing project works. Later, he will participate in the developmental programmes taken up in the segment.