Many Ministers in Rosaiah’s Cabinet abstain from work

Close to ten days after being sworn in for the second time in Andhra Pradesh, Ministers in the Rosaiah Cabinet are yet to get back to the serious business of administration.

Consequently, several matters of public importance lie unresolved in the absence of decision-making at the highest level. Not many of the Ministers are regularly attending their offices in the Secretariat, while some have made themselves scarce at review meetings held by Chief Minister K. Rosaiah on the ground that they had to participate in condolence meetings for Rajasekhara Reddy in their districts.

While Health Minister D. Nagender did not attend the meeting convened by the Chief Minister on swine flu on Sunday, it was the turn of Social Welfare Minister P. Subhash Chandra Bose on Tuesday. He was away in Kakinada to attend a meeting of the District Review Committee along with two other Ministers about which the CMO was informed.

Fifteen other Ministers were busy confabulating with the late Rajasekhara Reddy’s confidante K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao at his residence to take stock of the political situation in the wake of the Congress high command’s reluctance to anoint Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy as Chief Minister in the near future.

Four woman Ministers — Sabitha Indra Reddy, Galla Aruna Kumari, Sunitha Lakshma Reddy and J. Geetha Reddy — were away in Idupalapaya in Kadapa district to lay a wreath on YSR’s grave as they could not make it to the funeral on September 4. Another five to six Ministers were away in their native district campaigning for Congress candidates in the ZPTC elections scheduled for Wednesday.

Succession issue

The net result of all this confusion is the piling up of important files in the Ministers’ offices.