Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has hinted at providing smartphones to the poor as the state administration is experiencing difficulties in addressing the issues of BPL sections as well as issues related to disbursement of salaries come December 1.
The CM indicated this at an internal meeting on Wednesday and directed officials to deal with the poorer sections, farmers and employees firmly. Due to the demonetisation, December will be a troublesome month for the state government, senior bureaucrats said.
In Thursday’s meeting too, the Chief Minister enquired about the status and number of BPL families. Officials informed that there were around 20 lakh in the state.
“The instruments cost around Rs 500 per piece,” officers told Mr Naidu who said that if that was the case, the government could consider giving smart phones to the deserving. He said that if necessary, the government, bankers and service providers should come forward to provide mobile phones to the poor for banking transactions.
Though Mr Naidu made it clear that no one should face problems carrying out economic activities by December 1, bankers have reportedly informed him that the government should note that there was a vast difference between the inflows and outflows of currency.
