Vijayawada: MLAs are complaining that they have no information on principle secretaries and other high-ranking officials, when they are on tour through the regions. The netas claim that if they had information on the right people, they could share details on local issues.
A TD MLA said it was better to meet the administration officials in the districts, rather than ministers. BJLP leader P. Vishnu Kumar Raju said MLAs are forced to travel to Hyderabad or Velagapudi to find solutions to people’s problems.
“If we had prior information and knowledge on the officials while touring the districts, we can address reports to them directly instead of all this traveling,” he said.
Earlier, to meet the Chief Minister and the ministers, MLAs had to come to the Secretariat. But they are now meeting the officials in their constituencies. All the districts had in-charge ministers and only Kadapa had no berth in the cabinet. But even then, MLAs aren’t interested in meeting the ministers. They prefer consulting with the respective departments’ principal secretaries and special chief Secretaries.
BJLP leader P. Vishnu Kumar Raju said, he wanted to take to the notice of the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu that certain standard instructions should be given to the officials above the rank of Principal Secretaries to intimate the district in-charges and ministers on their arrival to the districts for the reviews on developmental activities. He quoted a recent example saying that he had come to Velagapudi on Tuesday to meet the Chief Secretary to discuss the housing scheme for the weaker sections of the society and middle-class families.
The housing scheme is being carried out in the Public Private Partnership mode (PPP). It also involves private builders. However, Mr Raju said that since he was unable to connect with the right person and because he no information about the Chief Secretary, he was forced to travel to the city of Visakhapatnam for the meeting. The MLAs added that the works which had been pending for a while were finished after just with the secretaries of the concerned department.
