AP Welfare Schemes Get a Family Twist!

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday directed district Collectors to encourage joint families by extending welfare benefits to all.

Expressing concern over the splitting of joint families into micro families to receive welfare benefits, the Chief Minister advised the officials to distribute ration to all the members by changing policies and by treating the family as the basic unit.

He instructed officials to complete family-unit mapping before issuing new social security pensions, while continuing the existing beneficiaries without any changes.

Addressing the Collectors' Conference on the second and concluding day, the Chief Minister directed officials to prepare a welfare calendar to remind people of welfare benefits receiving dates and to bring awareness among them on better use of welfare benefits.

The Chief Minister said the government had so far spent around Rs 1.50 lakh crore on welfare programmes, including Rs 75,000 crore on pensions alone. Welfare policies should focus on reducing economic inequalities and improving people’s quality of life, he said and called for focussing more on empowering families.

CM Naidu directed SERP and MEPMA to extensively implement the “One Family–One Entrepreneur” programme. He said steps were being taken to transform five lakh women into entrepreneurs. He stressed the need to provide quality education to students staying in hostels.

Chandrababu Naidu directed Collectors to take the P4 programme forward as a people’s movement rather than implementing it as a routine exercise.

The Chief Minister said the first day of every month had been dedicated to welfare through the “Pedala Sevalo” programme. Similarly, the “Mee Bhoomi–Mee Hakku” programme should be conducted on the 9th of every month to undertake comprehensive cleansing of land records, he said.

He directed officials to give priority to sanitation through the “Swachh Andhra–Swarna Andhra” programme on the third Saturday of every month and implement the “Sanjeevani” digital health records initiative on the fourth Saturday for better citizen health management. Along with these initiatives, the message of positive thinking and building a society based on values should be taken to the people, he said.

While reviewing the status of file clearances by ministers, secretaries, collectors and other officials, the Chief Minister pulled up officials for failing to dispose of files within the prescribed time. He said total file clearance should be made online within one month. He congratulated all officials who cleared files within two days or less.

Field visits by secretaries and collectors are mandatory and must be undertaken regularly. Performance can be improved only when officials receive feedback directly from the people, the Chief Minister added.

Naidu expressed ire over the absence of some heads of departments for the Collectors’ Conference and directed the Chief Secretary to seek an explanation from the officials who failed to attend.