Nominated posts in TD to be filled in 100 days, says new party chief Palla

Visakhapatnam: The Telugu Desam government would fill all the nominated posts during the next 100 days, the newly appointed state president of the party, Palla Srinivasa Rao, has said.

Talking to Deccan Chronicle on Monday, Srinivasa Rao said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu suggested him to fill all the vacant posts by giving priority to seniority and the effort each individual leader put for strengthening of the party in the last five years.

“I will prepare the list of vacant posts, identify suitable names and submit these to the Chief Minister. I would also discuss these matters with minister Nara Lokesh, the general secretary of the party,” Srinivas said.

He said the basic idea was to make these leaders a part of the government.

The second important task assigned to Srinivasa Rao was to clear all the politically motivated police cases registered during the last five years. The cases in which FIRs were registered would be cleared in one year and those not registered would be cleared in three months’ time.

“The previous government filed more than 10,000 cases all over the state during the last five years,’’ he said.

Asked about the efforts being put in to clear the air on steel plant privatisation, Srinivasa Rao said he had discussions with Chandrababu Naidu and two options were put before him - one, to merge VSP with the Steel Authority of India; two, a takeover by the state government.

“The Chief Minister asked me to prepare a note on both the options and he would bring this to the notice of the NDA government in Delhi,’’ Rao said.

On strengthening the party, Srinivasa Rao said a membership drive would be taken up from November this year and main focus would be on the rural areas. The Chief Minister advised him to pick up young and dynamic leaders who would be assets for the party.