Stung by reports that they were not extending full cooperation to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah and a note of caution from K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, MP, several Ministers turned up at the Secretariat on Wednesday.
The significant improvement in their attendance was largely on account of Dr. Rao’s advice not to send wrong signals to the people and the party leadership by absenting themselves. They must lend full support to the Chief Minister in running the administration by participating in meetings convened by him.
Labour Minister R. Venkata Reddy was the notable absentee. As he was reportedly preoccupied with other engagements in his native Khammam district, he was not present when Mr. Rosaiah reviewed a social security scheme to eliminate urban poverty.
The extent to which the Ministers concentrated on issues of their respective departments was not known since no significant Government Orders were issued. A look at the government’s official website revealed that the orders issued pertained to routine matters such as release of budget estimates and sanction of leave and medical bills to IAS officers.
In contrast to nearly 5,000 people visiting the Secretariat last month, only a few hundreds are turning up now. Interestingly, the General Administration Department officials could not say when they would install pictures of the Chief Minister in the chambers of Ministers. They maintained that this practice of installing photographs of the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister was based on tradition and there was no such provision in the Protocol Manual.
‘Not shirking work’
Municipal Administration Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy told reporters that it was not correct to say that Ministers were shirking work.
“We are all extending full cooperation to our Chief Minister. We have clarified on more than one occasion that there was no intention on the part of the Ministers to skip office,” he added.
