VISAKHAPATNAM: With public expectations at a new high Wednesday on the eve of the launch of Janmabhoomi programme, the tension among the officials is palpable as they gear up to face the people during the Telugu Desam Government’s first massive people interaction programme ‘Janmabhoomi-Maavooru’ which will be launched Thursday. The government issued several strict guidelines and instructions for the 18-day long programme.
The ministers of the respective districts, after a series of meetings with all the functional heads, are directly supervising the programme. However, officials at both the village and mandal level have been warning the district level bosses that it would be a challenge to face the people who are seething over the delay in waiver of farming, SHG loans, downsizing the number of beneficiaries of various welfare schemes including pensions, NREGS and houses, among others.
Of the various problems being reported by people, the Aadhar card linkage for various schemes has taken top priority. Though the government is claiming that over 90 per cent of Aadhar cards have already been issued to the people, a huge number of people in the village have not received the m due to reasons unknown.
Running close on the heels of the same issue is the TDP government’s decision to increase the welfare pension to `1,000, and subsequent instructions to the authorities to close all the benami and bogus pension cards immediately with the help of the Aadhar cards. However, no district administration has announced the total number of pensioners and expenditure per month. The officials are still reportedly calculating and verifying the records and matching the field reports with the statistics.
Reacting to the issue, minister for Panchayat Raj Ch Ayyanna Patrudu directed all the officials to provide clarification on the names deleted from the pension scheme at the grama sabhas.
Aadhar cards aside, there are several allegations plaguing the NREGS works as well. Chairman of District Central Cooperative Bank (DCCB) Dola Jagan demanded to take immediate action over the one lakh bogus job cards of NREGS in the district. He also demanded to reveal the action taken reports on the field assistants executing the NREGS works.
The government also directed all the mandal level programme officers, additional programme officers to be present at the grama sabhas to verify the job cards. All the field assistants, federation members, other employees and outsourced persons must be present at the Janmabhoomi-Maavooru programme as per the instructions of the government.
Speaking on the overall situation, one of the IAS officers told Express, “It is true that there are big expectations on the new government. The farmers and SHG members are eagerly waiting for the loan waiver. As no bank is giving loans to the present kharif crops, the farmers are obviously troubled and angry. Meanwhile, according to govt orders we are to strictly direct village level employees and officers to close all the bogus and benami names in various welfare schemes. For the last four months, the people are in a state of confusion and they are getting a chance to raise their voice in the Janmabhoomi programme.”
Meanwhile, observing the demands and threats of the opposition parties, the government directed the officials to sort out the people’s demands into two categories: financial and non-financial. All the officials have been directed to sort out all the non-financial problems immediately, and refer the financial issues to the collector peshi, if necessary.
A senior Telugu Desam MLA accepted that it would be a humongous task to face the people in the Janmabhoomi programme. “We are also prepared to face the opposition parties. However, chief minister Chandrababu Naidu is spending a lot of his time on the loans issue. We have so far succeeded in bringing to the notice of the public the several problems associated with the loan waiver, how the whole process is linked with the banks etc., But the programme is not about the loans alone, it is also about initiatives such as Clean India, Plantation, Cattle Vaccination, Sanitation and several others,” the MLA said.