It's Naidu show all the way

Vijayawada: The CMO is ignoring the role of ministers in departmental review meetings, which are being held in the presence of secretaries. With this, there is an increasing gap between ministers and secretaries.

Cabinet ministers said their importance was getting diminished everyday as their role was getting limited to cabinet meetings and involvement not seen in governance.

At any major event, the Chief Minister himself is leading the programme, even if the respective minister is present or not. Earlier, even review meetings used to be kept on hold or postponed if the minister concerned was not available, but these days ministers are ignored for the meetings and are represented by secretaries.

Generally, in review meetings, challenges and targets in executing the cabinet decisions of departments are discussed.

A cabinet minister said: “If any good thing happens, it is credited to the CMO and the Chief Minister, and if anything goes awry, the minister concerned is blamed.”

He said as the Chief Minister’s Office is directly coordinating and communicating with the department secretaries, a gap has been formed between the ministers and secretaries and its impact is clearly seen on the administration.

This situation is not confined to any individual department, but is faced by all. The ministers are feeling awkward to express and explain this situation.

A senior cabinet minister, who is holding a key portfolio, said: “Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu never ran a one-man show earlier and had given due importance to all the ministers, and there was internal democracy. But in recent times, this is totally changed and had made ministers into puppets.”