Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu released a draft manual on ‘Smart village-Smart ward towards smart Andhra Pradesh’ for public discussion in Vijayawada on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Naidu said that the State Government set 20 non-negotiable indicators for smart villages. The programme would be officially launched on January 18.
Till then, the intellectuals, NGOs, elected representatives and people from all walks of life were requested to deliberate on the draft manual and give their feedback and suggestions to the government. It would help in achieving the goal of decentralizing governance through the new initiative, he said.
Mr. Naidu said that there were 12,918 gram panchayats and 3465 wards spread over 670 mandals across the State. And, to achieve the goal, elected representatives, corporate houses, NRIs, NGOs, civil servants and Group-I officers would act as catalysts in the local development process. Every village would have a lead partner and partners, who work in coordination with Village Committee to achieve all the 20 non-negotiable indicators. In all, 16,500 volunteers would be identified, he said.
The Chief Minister said that the community, individually and collectively, would be empowered to take smart decisions to achieve the smart village/ward status. The partners would be encouraged to bring in innovative ideas, technology and resources and disseminate information on best practices to facilitate and accelerate the process, he said, adding, “The government objective was inclusive and sustainable development.
Mr. Naidu said that the government has set target of making Andhra Pradesh as one of the top 3 high performing states in the country by 2022, the 75th year of independence. The government also plans to make Andhra Pradesh as number-one state by 2029 and world best place by 2050, he asserted.
Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, BC Welfare Minister Kollu Ravindra, Machilipatnam MP Konakalla Narayana and others were present.
