Naidu Allows Kits with Jagan Photo for Schools

Hyderabad: Keeping his word to not indulge in retrogressive politics, Chief Minister-designate of Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu has cleared the distribution of kits to government schoolchildren with photographs of outgoing chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy printed on them.

The previous government used to distribute kits which contained a school bag, pair of shoes, books and other stationery besides uniforms. Titled ‘Jagananna Vidya Kanuka’, these kits were kept ready for the current academic year set to begin from Thursday.

Had Naidu taken the decision the other way and wanted the kits redone with his photograph, the state government would have incurred a loss running into at least a few hundreds of crores of rupees.

The TD supremo also gave a go-ahead for the release of results of entrance examinations without waiting for the new government to be formed and the minister concerned appointed. “We should not keep students and their parents in anxiety,” he is said to have pointed out.

Accordingly, the government on Tuesday released results of entrance tests for admission into engineering, agriculture and pharmacy courses (Eapcet).

Sources also said Naidu will sign on a few files immediately after assuming office including the withdrawal of all the legal battles the previous government waged on the controversial ‘Three Capitals’ issue. The Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-government had filed an SLP in the Supreme Court challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court verdict against the Three Capitals. The decision was in tune with Naidu’s firm resolve to retain Amaravati as the lone capital of Andhra Pradesh. He will also sign a file relating to another controversial move of the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government — the Land Titling Act. The TD had made a huge electoral issue out of the Act which it feared would take away the ownership rights of individual landowners. The government will subsequently move a bill in the new Assembly scrapping the Act.

Naidu, however, would order for a probe into the procurement of the school kits. The previous government had placed orders for Rs.600 core without calling for tenders for the kits.