Interact more with people, officials told

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has said officials should visit villages and interact with local people during the Grama Darsini programme, to get their feedback on the implementation of several government programmes. He said the real purpose of welfare programmes would be served when they were accepted by the people.

Addressing a video conference of Heads of Departments and ministers at the Secretariat on Thursday, the Chief Minister said that Andhra Pradesh stands in the 44th place in providing quality of life, while the country stands at 133rd position.

Stating that the state had bagged 55 awards, both national and international, the Chief Minister said World Bank officials had also praised the efforts of the state for emerging as Number One in Ease of Doing Business continuously.

The Chief Minister advised the officials to adopt best practices to make Andhra Pradesh figure in the top 10 positions of the world. He said AP stands at Number One position in implementation of 12 national programmes, in second to fifth position in 28 programmes and sixth to tenth position in implementation of eight programmes.

He said 22 departments were utilising the NREGs funds and questioned why other departments had failed to utilise NREGS funds.

The Chief Minister said villages had witnessed enormous development during the past four years and cement roads had been laid in a majority of villages. He said that the state had bagged a total of 550 awards both national and international, including the Panchayat Raj Department. The department won 17 awards at the national level, housing department won 15 awards and the energy department 10 awards.

Earlier, Real Time Governance officials gave a presentation on the performance of several departments. After going through the presentation, the Chief Minister questioned the officials on why a majority of them had failed to attend the Grama Darsini programme.

He said people expressed satisfaction over the visit of some officials to the Grama Darsini programme and it would increase if the officials repeatedly visited these people.

The CM reviewed the performance of flagship programmes, including Chandranna Bheema and congratulated the officials at the mandal level for achieving cent per cent satisfaction from the people on the implementation of the programme. Asking the officials to improve their performance, the CM said that best performing officers would be awarded suitably. He said cash incentives also would be given to the best performing officials.