VIJAYAWADA: The YSR Congress government has intensified its efforts to pacify dissatisfied segments of the population by offering to spend an additional Rs 12 crore in each assembly segment for resolving local issues.
The money will be routed through local legislators and spent in the next two years, before the next general elections in 2024. YSRC MLAs were touring in their constituencies under the Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam mass contact programme to engage the people, as advised to them by party president and chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The mass contact programme was aimed majorly at explaining to the people the good works of the government including the welfare and development programmes and at resolving local issues.
The Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam started on May 11. People came forward to raise various issues and legislators often faced ire of the public in several constituencies because of lack of development and persisting civic problems.
It is in this context that the chief minister announced the Rs 2 crore special fund for every MLA to resolve local issues during the Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam programme but the orders regarding the same were not issued for some reason.
Jagan reviewed the mass contact programme after a month and expressed dissatisfaction over the poor performances of several legislators. He affirmed that the party tickets for the 2024 elections will be given purely on performance basis.
The ministers and legislators meanwhile took up the issue of non-issuance of the order for the Rs 2 crore fund and sounded the CM. They pointed out to him that the mass contact programme would continue for eight months and issues would multiply.
The CM promised to issue the orders for the fund allocation and asked legislators to also use the Rs 5 crore fund for each constituency available with the district administrations. If Rs 7 crore is spent, then the government will allot another `5 crore for the purpose, he said.
Jagan asked the MLAs to send their proposals to the CMO if huge funds were required for any project in their constituency.
Political analysts say that a majority of the community-based complaints coming in at Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam were of the poor basic amenities like bad road conditions, drainage and drinking water problems and lack of development of public spaces.
Most of these problems can be resolved with a fund allotment of Rs 12 crore to each constituency. The CMO funds can also be used for big projects and these initiatives will be helpful to pacify those who are resentful, and they can be attracted to the YSRC in the 2024 elections.
MLAs Malladi Vishnu, A Ramakrishna Reddy, Md Mustafa and others said the Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam is a revolutionary programme and the first-of-its kind to meet people and resolve their issues.
Minister for BC welfare Srinivasa Krishna said at a Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam programme that the state government would sanction Rs 5 crore to every constituency for redressal of grievances. The CM would conduct district-level review meetings on June 30 and more funds would be sanctioned for area development, he said.
