Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao expressed happiness at a party meeting last week that the administration was finally on rails, now that the All India Service officers allotted to Telangana had joined duties.
He had on several occasions in the past complained regarding delay in distribution of officers between the two States which badly affected the administration. In the absence of full complement of officers, Mr. Rao also delayed the expansion of his Cabinet as the incoming Ministers will not have supporting bureaucracy.
He lost no time in posting the officers as soon as about 50 of them were relieved by the Andhra Pradesh government. In the process, he appointed women as Collectors for five districts, but the list underwent modifications till midnight that day.
Caught between the devil and deep sea
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is literally caught between the devil and the deep sea in the matter of implementation of his election promises.
On the one hand, the government is faced with a deficit budget of Rs. 16,000 crore and, on the other, Mr. Naidu announced a slew of welfare measures for various sections of people. He has also said that the government will not impose fresh taxes, but improve tax collection to raise resources. The Opposition targeted him saying that he frequently referred to the fund crunch in a bid to backtrack on the poll promises.
The Leader of Opposition, Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, went a step further and said Mr. Naidu will never be able to construct a world class capital as promised by the latter.
Minister’s visit
raises hopes
A day before the arrival of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in Hyderabad, people wondered whether he will announce creation of new railway zones for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Those in Railway Board believe that it was possible only in a win-win situation for railways. Meanwhile, the matter is pending with a high-powered committee that is expected to file its report soon.
Bureaucrats running against time
The bureaucrats and engineers in the Panchayat Raj and Irrigation Departments are running against time as the time left for revival of over 9,000 minor irrigation tanks by May-end is shrinking with every passing day. Survey of only half of the targeted tanks has been completed and there is a yawning gap between the surveyed tanks and the number of tanks that have been given administrative sanction. “In spite of our best efforts, we could give administrative sanction to works pertaining to less than 1,000 tanks so far with an estimated cost of Rs. 200 crore. It is a real testing time for the government machinery in the departments concerned to meet the target, though the decision to revive tanks was taken only a couple of months ago,” a senior officer said with a sense of optimism.
CM helpline flooded with calls
Mere mention of launch of a dedicated helpline number in the Chief Minister’s office to register complaints against corrupt government staff was enough for the common man to respond.
A week after the helpline number 23454071 became functional, a whopping 10,750 calls were received from all the 10 districts of Telangana.
Initially, the number was used by 104 Sevakendram, which gave information about the health services of the State government. With additional lines, the calls became more frequent.
Of the total calls, at least 500 made specific allegations against officials. This prompted the Director General of Anti Corruption Bureau, A.K. Khan, to visit the call centre office recently and interact with the staff.
Last heard, the government is planning to enquire into each complaint of corruption if there was evidence.
– Reporting by N. Rahul,
Y. Mallikarjun,
Suresh Krishnamoorthy,
B. Chandrashekhar,
Ravi Reddy
