Incessant rains and the ongoing farming season in East Godavari district have come up as a hurdle for Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in starting his much-publicised tour of all districts to pull the Congress out of morass ahead of the 2014 elections. Mr Reddy was scheduled to kick off his mass contact programme, christened “Indiramma Baata”, with a three-day tour of East Godavari from Thursday.
On Tuesday, Mr Reddy met his Cabinet colleagues and officials at the Camp Office and explained to them the idea of the programme. While some ministers raised doubts about its timing, given people's frustration over long power cuts, insufficient rain and black-marketing of seeds and fertiliser, the CM did not agree with the objections.
When the ministers highlighted the power scarcity in the state, particularly the increase in demand from the agriculture sector due to the ongoing Kharif season, the CM said nothing could be done as the shortage was due to hydel and gas-based units. “Even though we want to purchase power, it is not available with other states as several states are facing a shortage,” Mr Reddy said. He added that there would be an improvement in power sector once the rains set in.
City minister Danam Nagender urged the CM to obtain loans from the HUDCO instead of from JAICO (a Japanese agency) to complete the third phase of Krishna waters to the city. Mr Reddy said the ministers and officials should explain to the people the reasons behind their problems and try to solve “genuine grievances” as part of Indiramma Baata. Having earmarked Rs 600-crore budgetary sanction for ‘special development fund’ this year, Mr Reddy is unlikely to face any problem in announcing new schemes and making financial commitments during his three days of tours to each district as part of the programme.
In the meeting, some ministers also brought up the issues of non-implementation of pending assurances and sanctioned work during the earlier Rachcha-banda programmes. Mr Reddy said Indiramma Baata is aimed at ensuring that benefits of welfare programmes reach the deserving poor.
The programme entails the CM, his Cabinet colleagues and elected representatives visiting villages and interacting with the people about the end result of different government programmes. The plan to tour at least 100 Assembly constituencies over a one-month period is also meant to find out loopholes in policy implementation and rectify them, the CM said.
It includes surprise inspection of schools, hostels, hospitals, fair price shops, anganwadi, Nutri-tion and Day Care Centres (NDCC), among others.