AP plans surprise checks at village secretariats

AMARAVATI: Alerted by reports of a recent national survey, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to conduct surprise inspections of all village and ward secretariats starting from Saturday. The move is intended at eliminating any deficiencies in the overall functioning with special focus on the delivery system designed for the welfare schemes.

Although the YSRCP government is implementing welfare measures on a large scale in Andhra Pradesh for the last three years, there is criticism that its effect is not fully visible. A recently released national-level survey reportedly revealed that the graph of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's rule has plummeted.

Taking cognizance of this, the government is conducting surprise inspections of the village and ward secretariats to ascertain if there are any shortcomings in the system. The government is eager to find out how well the welfare schemes are being implemented at the grassroots level. The government has already linked these welfare schemes to the secretariats.

Now, the YS Jagan regime wants to check the efficacy of the delivery mechanism besides gauge the public opinion – what they think about them. For this, the government has issued an order to the district collectors to carry out inspections in the village and ward secretariats for two days starting from Saturday.

Officials of three grades – tehsildars, municipal commissioners and joint collectors – have been designated with the task of conducting the inspections. The government order in this regard has reportedly stated that officials of two of these three departments should conduct the surprise checks every week. They have also been asked to take steps to ensure the availability of the secretariat staff for the public. Accordingly, the relevant officials will participate in these inspections.

The district collectors have also been directed on what all aspects or issues that need to be scrutinized during these surprise inspections. The chief minister, it is learnt, has asked the secretariats to examine every record and initiate appropriate action. He is said to have observed during a video conference that thousands of applications are pending on the revenue department dashboard and advised the officials to strive hard to deliver the government schemes to the people more efficiently.