YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has chosen an interesting route to shift the chief minister’s camp office and also the rest of the administration from Tadepalli/Amaravati to Visakhpatnam.
As the exercise of shifting the CMO from Tadepalli to Visakhapatnam has begun with Jagan announcing that he would be operating from the port city from Dasara festival, the government has apparently felt that the move might face legal hurdles as the Amaravati case is in Supreme Court.
So, the Jagan government has chosen to move the offices to Visakhapatnam through an administrative order on a different pretext.
Chief Secretary K S Jawahar Reddy on Wednesday night issued a government order (GO No. 2015) indicating some interesting reasons for the shifting of offices.
As per the GO, the chief minister would camp at Visakhapatnam for review and monitoring of the welfare and development programmes in Uttarandhra districts – comprising Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Parvathipuram Manyam, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Anakapalli districts.
The chief minister would like to review these programmes with ministers, senior officers and district officials, so that decisions taken are communicated to field level functionaries, quickly.
“This necessitates setting up of the camp office for the Chief Minister and accommodation for supporting senior functionaries, including Special Chief Secretary to Government, MA & UD Department, Special Chief Secretary to Government, Finance Department; and Secretary to Government (Services & HRM) and General Administration Department.
An official committee has been appointed to take immediate action in the matter.
According to the GO, the chief minister and his ministers would be moving to Visakhapatnam not because it is being proposed as executive capital, but only to oversee development in the Uttarandhra, which continues to exhibit low socio-economic development indicators in terms of health, education, irrigation, intensity, connectivity etc.
“This area is also home to a large concentration of the Tribal and particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) population in the State. Four out of five districts of the Region have been identified as Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts by the Government of lndia, Ministry of Home Affairs,” it said.
Further, some of the districts of the said region are covered by Backward Region Grant Fund. Two of the three aspirational districts identified by NlTl Aayog are in the Uttarandhra Region.
“Duly acknowledging the context of its historical backwardness, Section 46(3) of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 provides for incentives and special development for the North Coastal region,” the GO said.
It further said orders have been issued to all the Secretaries to Government, Heads of Departments and Special Officers, to visit the North Coastal districts regularly for conducting period review and monitoring of the welfare and development programmes, implementation of Chief Minster's Assistances and decisions taken in the District Review Meetings.
They were also asked to undertake field visits along with District Officials / night halts to familiarize themselves with local requirements and development, to develop the project implementation tracking mechanism of the schemes and programmes being implemented in the said districts.
lt was also ordered therein that for this purpose, the respective Departments may make their own arrangements for transit accommodation in and surrounding areas of Visakhapatnam.
“lt is likely that Hon'ble Chief Minister and Hon'ble Ministers may visit North Coastal districts for review and monitoring the welfare and development activities being implemented in the Region. At times, the presence of senior Government Officials may require by Hon'ble Chief Minister, while they are on a night stay in the said districts,” the GO said.
