Ever since Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power in May 2019, there has been one criticism he had been facing was that he is not going into the people, as he used to do when he was an opposition leader.
One could understand Jagan’s initial days of being in power, as he was new to administration and it would take some time for him to understand the nuances of governance.
However, even after two years, he has not made any attempts to go into the people to directly interact with them.
Except for official programmes in various districts, Jagan has hardly come out of his Tadepalli residence-cum-camp office.
The party leaders close to him are defending him saying the Covid-19 situation was preventing him from directly going into the people.
In the last two years, Jagan has launched several welfare schemes but only from his camp office, releasing money into the bank accounts of beneficiaries by pressing the button in his computer.
But Jagan has realised that it is time he goes into the people and get connected with them in the wake of the opposition parties systematically damage his government’s image and exposing the loopholes in the implementation of his schemes at the grassroots level, besides tackling the allegations of corruption.
According to sources, Jagan has decided to relaunch “Rachabanda” programme from October 2, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti Day.
In fact, he was planning to take up on September 2, 2019 itself but could not due to technical reasons.
The Rachabanda programme was originally conceived by his father late Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy to directly interact with the people.
He was supposed to launch the programme in Chittoor district on September 2, 2009, but met with tragic accident when the chopper he was flying from Hyderabad crashed midway in Nallamala forests due to inclement weather.
The programme was later abandoned by the succeeding K Rosaiah government. Jagan now wants to revive it and take the administration to the villages.
However, the chief minister wants the programme to be a surprise visit, so that he could understand the functioning of the actual administration at the grassroots level.
As part of Rachabanda programme, Jagan will fly down to a village at a short notice and visit the local village secretariats to oversee their functioning.
He would later interact with the beneficiaries and take the feedback from them directly on the functioning of village secretariats and the local officials.
“He is expected to visit at least two villages a week, so that he would cover most parts of the state in the next two and a half years,” sources said.
