Hyderabad: IAS officers who have often been criticised by AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, were left stunned when the CM, known as a tough taskmaster, went out of his way to make them “feel good”.
At the secretaries’ conference held on Saturday, Mr Naidu appreciated the IAS officers for their performance. Generally, Mr Naidu in such meetings, used to pull up some IAS officers and ministers too, but Saturday’s meeting was different, the CM showing his appreciation for the endowments, tourism and housing departments.
In earlier meetings, the CM had criticised the revenue and police departments, telling them that they were bringing a bad name to the government.
He said the “Mee Intiki – Mee Bhoomi” programme launched by the revenue department was getting a good response from the public. So far, 1.80 crore people had visited the website and every day, 75,000 people were verifying land records, he said.
Mr Naidu said that the performance of endowments department was very good, the department maintaining 150 temples quite well and achieving a 20 per cent growth rate.
Appreciating the tourism department, he said that the number of tourists to the state has increased. “So far 1,50,320 foreigners have visited AP. In the tourism sector, Vizag is at 1st place. The government has completed tourism projects worth Rs 800 crore,” he said.
The CM’s review meetings usually continue from morning till evening, sometimes stretching quite late. However, Saturday’s meeting was wound up by lunchtime, surprising the IAS officers.
After Mr Naidu shifted to Vijayawada, many IAS officers thought that he wouldn’t come to the Secretariat expect when the Assembly was sitting. Generally at the end of such meetings, the IAS officers come out with tiredness on their faces, but on Saturday, almost all of them were smiling as they left the meeting hall.
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