Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Naidu enthusiastic at video-conference

By Our Special Correspondent

Hyderabad Nov. 15. The weekly video-conference of the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, at the Secretariat on Saturday was sparingly attended by officers and marked by some interesting specialities.

First of all, there was no slidedown in spirit even by a degree as far as Mr Naidu himself was concerned while participating in the programme a day after the Assembly dissolution. In contrast, about a half score of his Ministers who sat on his either side were conspicuously silent. There was no considerable interaction from any of them throughout the three and a half hours of exercise. There were hardly 50 officials compared to the full-capacity attendance earlier. Among the Ministes present were B. V. Mohan Reddy, Municipal Administration, C, Mutyam Reddy, Civil Supplies, N. Janardhan Reddy, Panchayat Raj, K. Subbarayudu, Energy, and A. Uma Madhava Reddy, Mines and Geology.

A "contest" over the Khammam district performance in rural sanitation offered the much-needed relief from the otherwise dull and drab proceedings. As the Chief Minister dealt with this subject, the Collector of this district spoke of "total achievement", citing construction of all the targetted 39,000 individual latrines in his district. Mr Naidu complimented him for the "best performance" but he had to withdraw the praise amidst chuckles, with V. Nagi Reddy, Secretary, Panchayat Raj, coming out terming the district the "worst performer". He said Khammam had fixed its target at the lowest level compared to that of other districts invariably touching the 2 lakh figure.

The mirth was back when the Chief Minister dwelt on the next issue, urban sanitation. Detailing the "negative progress" made by some different districts, the Principal Secretary for Urban Development, R. S. Rao, repeatedly addressed their heads as "Collector doralu", asking them to improve.

The programme was not devoid of announcements by Mr Naidu. Reacting to problems highlighted by the Collectors, he issued instructions for construction of buildings with kitchens for all the schools in Ranga Reddy district within one year to avoid Vemulapalli type incident in Nalgonda district in which worms were found in mid-day meal served to school kids. Dealing with agriculture, he announced exemption of purchase tax for cotton for increasing exports. On the second survey on wakf properties in the State, the Chief Minister wanted it to be completed by December-end.

The Chief Minister sought bankers to fix a uniform interest rate of 9 per cent for all loans for drip irrigation equipments being supplied to farmers in a big way under the Rs 1,200-crore Micro Irrigation Project.

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