VIJAYAWADA: At the state-level District Collectors’ Conference held at the Secretariat on Wednesday, the Chief Minister commended four collectors for clearing e-office files within hours.
Krishna District Collector DK Balaji secured the top position, earning special praise. Reviewing file disposal over the past three months, the Chief Minister noted that the four collectors had completed clearances in less than a day. He congratulated Balaji for achieving first rank.
During the meeting, Balaji requested exemption for field-level staff—particularly VROs and village surveyors engaged in re-survey work—from mandatory morning office attendance, as they are required to begin ground-truthing duties early.
IT, E&C and RTGS Secretary Katamneni Bhaskar reported that 74% of field staff were attending duties, while 26% were not marking attendance and were unavailable to the public. The Chief Minister directed collectors to take disciplinary action against those absent without valid reasons and to create a system exempting staff genuinely on field visits.
The Chief Minister also reviewed groundwater levels, noting that in Krishna district the water table had risen from 9.45 metres on June 1 to 7.69 metres by November 25. He instructed officials to prepare recharge plans with the Panchayati Raj Department after the next monsoon.
Balaji clarified that four mandals, including Bapulapadu and Gannavaram, fall in upland areas, and assured measures would be taken to improve groundwater levels within three months.
From the Krishna district headquarters, Joint Collector M. Naveen, DRO K. Chandrasekhar Rao, KRCS DC Sridevi, Housing Corporation Officer Pothuraju, District Animal Husbandry Officer Chinna Narasimhulu, Fisheries JD Ayya Nagaraju, BC Welfare Officer Ramesh, BC Corporation ED Rajendra Kumar, ZP CEO Anand Kumar, DCO Chandrasekhar Reddy, DRDA PD Hariharanath and other officials participated virtually.