Adopt 'people first' approach for welfare schemes: Naidu to staff

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday gave clear directions to the officers and other government employees to discharge their duties with the 'people first' policy keeping in view the public opinion and expectations.

Chairing a review meeting at the State Secretariat here after gathering public opinion on the functioning of various government wings, he made it clear that the word of the beneficiaries is final and no matter what anyone says. He stated that the feedback that he gets from the ground-level will only be taken into consideration.

Expressing happiness over the public satisfaction on the implementation of the policies right from the ground-level to the top level in certain departments, Naidu felt that these results could be achieved following the best practice in the departments concerned and appreciated the heads and other officers of these wings.

At the same time, the Chief Minister is unhappy that certain departments could not achieve the expected results in these seven months and directed the officers to conduct a deep study for the reasons and take necessary corrective steps.

The Chief Minister who held the review following a survey conducted on 10 different issues in these departments made it amply clear that the service part should be accelerated and quality improved. He also told the officers that even one per cent of corruption in the distribution of schemes to the beneficiaries will not be tolerated.

In the presentation made by the officers to the Chief Minister, a total of 90.20 per cent of beneficiaries expressed satisfaction on pension distribution at their homes on 1st of every month while 87.48 per cent beneficiaries are happy at the manners of the pension distributors.

However, as many as 15.6 per cent of pensioners complained of corruption at some places.

With regard to Anna Canteens 91 per cent are happy on quality, about 82 per cent are satisfied at maintenance of cleanliness while 84 per cent are content with timely supply of food. Similarly, a total of 89.92 per cent farmers in the State are happy at the grain procurement system while 30 per cent expressed dissatisfaction over supply of gunny bags and 84 per cent of farmers are totally happy at the reasonable price offered to their farm products.

After making a presentation on other wings too, the Chief Minister directed the officers to initiate steps to see to it that the satisfaction level in supply of sand and fertilisers should further go up. Though 78 per cent of the people are happy at the supply of sand, the Chief Minister felt that the system of free sand should be further increased and that the satisfactory level should be 100 per cent.