Govt. Will Use Facebook: CM

Stating that agriculture, education, health, employment-generation, the welfare of the poor are the priority sectors of the state government, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday said that government would constitute a team to work with Facebook to improve the schemes and programs to be more people-friendly.

The Chief Minister was addressing the gathering in the capacity of the Chief Guest at the "Facebook India Day" held at Madhapur.

Quoting the captions on the pillars of the Facebook office (Be Bold — Move Fast - Be Open - Focus On Impact - Build Trust), Kiran Kumar Reddy said that the government is following these quotations and focusing on people who the programs are intended to reach.

The Chief Minister said that education alone can change the lives of people and remove social barriers and social evils.

"The government will provide 15 lakh jobs in the next 3 years by upgrading the skills of the unemployed youth through special skill development programs," he stated.

He said that Rs. 2,500 crore is being spent by the government for the ongoing Education Fortnight. He added that the government has successfully brought back 38,000 school dropouts out of 1.27 lakh during this education fortnight.

He said that 6,000 high schools in the state have been provided with computers, and that 4,000 more will be provided with the same this year.

The CM opined that income generation is important, and the government is striving its best to achieve it through industry, IT and ITES.

He complimented Facebook for selecting Hyderabad as their second destination in the world, besides Palo Alto, Dublin and Australia.

"All my family members use Facebook. I will also try to find out time to operate it", he quipped.

The government will constitute a team to work on Facebook to make its schemes and programs more people-friendly, he added.

"Ours is a pro-active government. Our prime objective is to make Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh the international destinations for investments. We have transparency in implementing government schemes and programs. The prestigious Partnership Summit, in which 1,500 of the world's top industrialists will participate, will be held in Hyderabad. Also, the Bio-diversity Summit that consists of 130 countries has selected our state capital as its host city, and this will be held in October 2012," he said.

Minister for IT and Endowments Ponnala Lakshmaiah said that Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh are advantageous for investments.

IT and C Secretary Sanjay Jaju, Head of Facebook (Australia) Paul Borrud, and Kirthiga Reddy (Director of Online Operations and Head of Office India at Facebook) were also present. (INN)