VIJAYAWADA: The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) has sent a communique to all collectors instructing them to tour their districts for 15 days a month, besides asking them to strictly adhere to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s direction to make a night halt every week at hospitals, hostels and other places to take stock of the facilities first-hand.
In the communique, the CMO noted that some collectors were not following the instructions and instead were confining themselves to video conferences. To ensure adherence of Jagan’s direction, the CMO has also asked the collectors to send the photos of their night halts on WhatsApp.
"It has come to the notice of the CM that some collectors are spending more time in conducting video conferences with mandal-level officers rather than touring the districts. The CM is of the view that collectors are his eyes and ears at the field level and they should spend more time interacting with beneficiaries directly rather than taking indirect feedback from officials," it read. Further, the CMO also instructed that the collectors should not spend more than two days for conducting video conferences, one on Tuesday after the video conference with the CM and other on another day.
It was further noted that some collectors were not adhering to the instruction of making one night halt every week outside the district headquarters. "The collector is supposed to be the role model officer in the district. It is therefore requested not to give chance to anybody to criticise us. It is also requested that the photograph of every night halt be not only uploaded to the government website, but also be sent on WhatsApp to CMO," it said.
For the record, Jagan, in his first collectors’ conference, instructed them to interact with the public, especially to take the feedback on implementation of Navaratnalu. He also told them to sleep a night every week at the government-run facilities to know the problems, if any, and amenities available there. After following the instructions for a few weeks, the CMO came to know that some of the collectors stopped making night halt outside the district headquarters.