VIJAYAWADA: Describing transparency and friendly government as the immediate objectives of his government, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has sought cooperation of the district collectors and other IAS officers to achieve the same.
Addressing the two-day collectors’ conference at Praja Vedika in Undavalli on Monday, the first such conference organised by the new government, the Chief Minister made his priorities clear and explained what he expects from the bureaucrats.
In his inaugural address, Jagan said implementation of Navaratnalu — nine promises made in YSRC election manifesto — was the highest priority of the government. Jagan wanted IAS officers to cooperate and coordinate with MLAs in the implementation of Navaratnalu.
However, at the same time, officials were told not to do any favours acting on the recommendations of the MLAs. “Our government will not support illegal activities and looting of public money,” he maintained.
“The very purpose of Navaratnalu is to achieve social justice by ensuring the fruits of development reach those who were bereft of them till date. While implementing the programme, never consider, caste, creed, religion, region, political affiliations and ensure every eligible gets benefited,” Jagan maintained.
He said saturation should not be limited to namesake, but should become a reality. In that direction, the State government has come up with village volunteers and village secretariat system. Each village volunteer will be entrusted with the responsibility of 50 people and in coordination with the village secretariat, they will be responsible for door delivery of the government schemes to those 50 households.
“Village volunteers should not be corrupt and should not show discrimination and should not go by his emotions. Every eligible person should be given the benefits. To prevent corruption, we are giving an honorarium of Rs 5,000 per month. If any village volunteer is found guilty, a complaint could be made directly to the CMO and a separate call centre is being set up for the same. As it is a matter of only 50 houses, an inquiry could be held in a short period and in case of a mistake, the village volunteer will be summarily expelled and new volunteers will be appointed and there will be no two things about it,” Jagan explained.
Sharing his experience about corruption, he observed during his Praja Sankalpa Yatra, Jagan explained that to ensure transparency in tender process and change the perception that contracts are the byword for corruption, his government is introducing reverse tendering and is setting up judicial commission.
Taking a dig at the previous TDP government, he said that in the past five years a bad example was set and his government wanted to change it.
The Chief Minister wanted the collectors to leave their mark in the district they serve, which will make them more approachable. They were asked to start a new grievance day programme - Spandana -- from village to district level every Monday. There will not be any review meetings on that day, he assured.
The collectors were advised to give receipt to petitioners specifying the time in which the grievance will be redressed. He wanted them to do random checking, at least 10 a month to check to what level the grievances were redressed.
“Don’t forget the employees, especially contract employees. Their negative talk can be very damaging. Interact with them every third Friday in a month to know their problems and address them. More happy they are, the more effective the delivery mechanism will be,” he pointed out.
He also wanted the district collectors and other IAS officers in the district to do a surprise night halt in hostels and PHCs. “It will keep the staff on their toes, giving less scope for lapses. At the same time, officials will have firsthand information about the prevailing conditions, lapses and they can take action to rectify them more effectively,” he said.
On the proposed launch of the distribution of 25 lakh house site pattas on next Ugadi, district collectors were asked to take stock of government land, number of beneficiaries and the additional land required. Purchase the needed land and do the plotting. “I do not want the people to say that pattas were given but where is house site, like it happened in the previous government,” he said.
Officials were asked not to use different yardsticks to different people, as it would only lead to failure of the policy. “When we start bringing different yardsticks for different people - we lose everything policy goes haywire, credibility goes haywire, everything goes haywire - keep that in mind,” he stressed.
District collectors were also asked to develop district web portals, where every order in the district will be posted for transparency.