HYDERABAD: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s son and heir apparent Nara Lokesh’s visit to the United States has turned out to be a resounding success as hundreds of NRI members participated in his ‘Smart Village - Smart Ward’ programme, according LVSRK Prasad, chief spokesperson of the Telugu Desam Party.
Nara Lokesh visited several parts of the US, including Los Angeles, San Jose, Chicago, New Jersey, Dallas and Washington, where he interacted with hundreds of NRIs and sought their ideas for implementation of the programme.
In Los Angeles, 126 villages were adopted by the eager NRIs while in San Jose 248 villages were adopted by Telugu NRIs who were willing to devote their time, skill, money and intellect to the villages they were born in. Lokesh also presented the vision of Chandrababu Naidu to position AP among the top 3 states of India by 2022, in Chicago and New Jersey, which had high Telugu NRI population. A whopping 780 villages were adopted in New Jersey and 157 villages in Chicago as everybody volunteered to contribute and play a part in building a smart AP. Encouraged by the response in New Jersey, Lokesh headed to Dallas, where more than 600 Telugu NRIs assembled to witness him speak. As many as 356 villages were adopted here with Prakasam district topping the list closely followed by Chittoor district. At Washington DC 600 villages were adopted at one go at an event hosted by the Washington chapter of NRITDP, according to Prasad. Lokesh met with several dignitaries, bureaucrats and businessmen in the United States and encouraged them to invest in Andhra Pradesh. He also met with United States President Barack Obama and explained the Smart City project.