Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday announced that a vision document for the state’s development will be unveiled on October 2.
He made this announcement at the conference of District Collectors at the state secretariat here.
Stating the brand Andhra Pradesh was badly hit by the inefficient policies of the previous government, the Chief Minister stressed the need to restore the state’s image.
The Chief Minister asked the Collectors to formulate a vision document at the district level and said changes should be visible in 100 days.
This was the first conference of district Collectors after the TDP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power in the state in June.
Recalling that the previous government through the district Collectors conference had laid the stone for the demolition of the Praja Vedika, the Chief Minister said this conference should be the beginning of the state’s development.
Naidu asked officials to mingle with people on the first of every month in the programme christened as ‘Pedala Sevalo’ (in service of the poor).
He said that though the state has very efficient officials, in the past five years, they totally rendered the state the most ineffective one.
He said the IAS officers should make ground-level visits quite frequently and respond to people’s petitions from a humane angle.
“There is every need that officers accord proper importance to the advice being given by the local Ministers and MLAs and implement their ideas,” Chandrababu Naidu told the district Collectors.
He also wanted the bureaucrats to properly counter the fake propaganda being resorted to by certain elements to defame the government with some vested interest.
The bureaucrats and the Heads of various Departments (HoDs) should counter in a suitable manner the false propaganda through their social media accounts and disseminate information which is useful for the public, the Chief Minister said.
“There are now various kinds of issues to rebuild the state, including financial problems. We all can understand how the administration was in the past five years as not even a single conference of the District Collectors was organised in this period,” he pointed out.
Chandrababu Naidu asked Collectors to prepare an action plan to fill the reservoirs and ponds so that every drop of water can be properly utilised.
He said crops that can be grown with minimum water should be encouraged.
Directing the Collectors to take steps to fill all the drinking water tanks in the state on time, he said that the aim of the state should be supplying irrigation water to every acre.
Stressing the need for interlinking all the rivers in the state, the Chief Minister said that the state has five main rivers, the Krishna, the Godavari, the Pennar, the Nagavali, and the Vamsadhara, and 35 small rivers besides 38,422 minor irrigation facilities.
Pointing out that four crore acres of ayacut need to be irrigated in all the 26 districts in the state, he called for using every drop of water in the ongoing rainy season.
Directing the Collectors to review the revival of all the lift irrigation schemes that can be completed with minimum expenditure, he asked them to coordinate with the officials of the Agricultural Department on encouraging the high-yielded crops that can be grown with less utilisation of water.
Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, ministers, Chief Secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad, and senior officials were present.