VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is likely to embark on a mass contact programme, Rachabanda, in April. Jagan, during his first conference with collectors after taking charge as Chief Minister, had announced that as part of Rachabanda, he will visit villages and interact with people to receive their grievances and resolve them at the earliest. “Jagan will kick-start the Rachabanda programme after Ugadi (April 13),’’ Endowments Minister Vellampalli Srinivasa Rao said in Vijayawada on Thursday.
Jagan envisaged the programme not only to receive the grievances of the people but also to get feedback about the implementation of the government schemes at micro-level. The programme was initially scheduled in January-February 2020, but it got postponed and with the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdown, the programme was put on hold.
With Covid infections coming down in the State, the Chief Minister has now reportedly decided to launch the programme and asked the officials to make all arrangements and receive petitions from the people and resolve them before he sets off on the mass contact programme.
By April, all the elections, including those for which notification was issued and the MPTC and ZPTC polls in the State are likely to conclude, bringing an end to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), and Jagan chose April second week for launching the programme, sources said.
Rachabanda, in fact, was the idea of his father, late YS Rajasekhara Reddy during his tenure as Chief Minister, but he could not launch it. Rajasekhara Reddy was on his way to launch the mass contact programme at Anupalle in Chittoor district when he died in a helicopter crash on September 2, 2009. Jagan, who is taking forward the schemes started by his father, wants to launch the mass contact programme too.
During the programme, the Chief Minister, apart from getting feedback on his government’s welfare schemes, will elicit the views of the people on the irregularities, if any, in the implementation of the welfare schemes.
The government has initiated several measures to check corruption and bring transparency in the governance by bringing in the village and ward secretariats and volunteer system for effective implementation of its schemes at the grassroots.
Rachabanda
As part of the programme, Jagan will visit villages and interact with people to receive their grievances and resolve them at the earliest
He will receive the grievances of the masses and get feedback about the implementation of the government schemes at micro-level
YSR’s scheme
Rachabanda was the idea of his father, late YS Rajasekhara Reddy
YSR was on his way to launch the mass contact programme at Anupalle in Chittoor district when he died in a helicopter crash on September 2, 2009
Change of schedule
The mass contact programme was initially scheduled in January-February 2020, but it got postponed and with the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdown, the programme was put on hold