VIJAYAWADA: Kidari Sravan Kumar, an IITian who aspired to become a civil servant, made his entry into the State Cabinet on Sunday. Following the death of his father and Araku MLA K Sarveswara Rao in a Maoist attack, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu decided to take 28-year-old Sravan into his Cabinet to do justice to the bereaved family and also provide representation to STs in his Cabinet before the next elections.
After completing engineering at IIT (BHU), Sravan was taking coaching for the civil services examinations. But, Sravan’s career took a new turn with the tragic death of his father. In addition to the Tribal Welfare and Empowerment portfolio, the CM allocated the crucial primary health and family welfare to the new minister.
Amid applause in the Grievance Hall, Sravan took the blessings of Governor ESL Narasimhan after being sworn in as minister. Later, he touched the feet of Naidu to express his gratitude to the Chief Minister for providing him an opportunity to serve the people as a minister. The Chief Minister hugged and patted Sravan. Though Sravan is not a member of either the Legislative Assembly or the Council, he was inducted into the Cabinet. There will be no necessity for him to be a member of the Assembly or the Council within the stipulated six months as the election schedule is set to be announced in the meantime.
Naidu also inducted senior TDP leader and MLC NMD Farooq into his Cabinet and allocated him the Minority Welfare and Empowerment portfolio, besides Medical Education and NTR Vaidya Seva. After taking away Tribal Welfare portfolio from Social Welfare Minister Nakka Anand Babu, the Chief Minister allocated Cinematography to him, which was with Naidu till now.
Urging his Cabinet colleagues to extend their cooperation to the newly inducted ministers, Naidu in a lighter vein said, “Of course, Farooq is a senior (Muduru in Telugu), but, we all should cooperate with Sravan.’’
Visakhapatnam, Kurnool get three ministers each
Both Visakhapatnam and Kurnool districts are now having three ministers each in the State Cabinet after its expansion. While Ganta Srinivasa Rao (HRD), Ch Ayyanna Patrudu (R&B) and K Sravan Kumar (Tribal Welfare) represent Visakhapatnam, KE Krishnamurthy (Deputy Chief Minister and Revenue), Bhuma Akhila Priya (Tourism) and NMD Farooq (Minorities Welfare) belong to Kurnool.