Congress To Revive Minister’s Public Interface

Hyderabad:The Congress is set to revive its popular public outreach programme, 'Face to Face with Ministers', starting Wednesday at Gandhi Bhavan, the party’s headquarters in Nampally.

The initiative, which was originally launched in September 2024, had been temporarily halted in December without citing any reasons. The programme allows people to directly interact with ministers and submit petitions regarding their grievances. It will resume on Wednesday with BC welfare and transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar attending the session.

The TPCC leadership has also decided to launch another public outreach programme from June 10. Under the new initiative, Congress MLAs, MLCs, MPs, and chairpersons of various state-run corporations will also be available to meet the public daily from June 10 onwards.

As per the new schedule, two public representatives will be present every day at Gandhi Bhavan to receive petitions from people between 10 am and 1 pm.

The TPCC has taken the initiative to restart the public outreach programmes to ensure greater accessibility to the public. Initially, two corporation chairpersons will be available daily, followed by other elected representatives including MPs, MLAs, and MLCs in the days ahead.

The TPCC stated that all grievances submitted during the sessions will be forwarded to the government for resolution. It said the move is as part of the Congress’ effort to enhance public engagement and improve governance delivery.

The 'Face-to-face with Ministers' initiative launched in September 2024, received overwhelming response from the public and party workers. Ministers had to continue the session for more than five years far exceeding the scheduled three-hour timeframe.

Thousands of people from across the state, including students, women, and the elderly, sought solutions to issues ranging from job opportunities and housing to pensions and land disputes.

Every minister used to receive nearly 300 petitions from people on average. The ministers used to give directions to officials to resolve the grievances of people on the spot. They used to refer the petitions to departments concerned and seek ATRs (action taken reports) in 15 days.

All the 11 ministers in the cabinet attended the session between September and December. However, the second round of the programme failed to take off in 2025 as ministers reportedly skipped the sessions citing their busy schedule. However, the party leadership has decided to revive this initiative again considering the good response it evoked from the people.