PM to lay stone for railway zone building in Vizag on January 8

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has directed the officials to make all necessary arrangements for the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Visakhapatnam on January 8. The PM will be laying the foundation stone for the long-pending railway zone building at AU Engineering College grounds. He will also launch some more developmental programmes.

The visit assumes importance as the employees of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant plan to hold protests alleging that they are not getting salaries for the past three months. The Chief Minister mentioned this issue during the informal discussions he had with the ministers after the official agenda was over and asked the Home Minister and police officials to make necessary security arrangements and see that there was no breach of security or protocol.

Naidu also mentioned the diversion of Rs 21,000 crore from the employee’s savings fund by the previous government and asked them to suggest options so that justice could be done to the employees.

He also indicated that the government would soon launch the free bus travel scheme for women. He sought the opinion of the ministers on the free bus travel scheme. They also decided that steps should be taken to see that the students do not suffer and the responsibility of fee reimbursement in time should be given to the District Collectors. No student should complain that his certificate has been held back due to the non-reimbursement of fee, Naidu reportedly told the ministers. Soon after deciding on this, the CM called the Chief Secretary and asked to inform all educational institutes about this decision.

He however expressed his unhappiness over the slow progress in redressal of grievances received during the Revenue Sadassu held in the state recently. The government received about 13,000 complaints.

Naidu said the people will not have the kind of patience which the officers may have. Their grievances need to be redressed immediately and they should not be making repeated visits to the government offices. He asked the ministers to focus their attention on this aspect. He asked the ministers and officials to submit an action taken report on this issue.