AP officials brief PM on progress made

Vijayawada: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant were given an overview of the measures undertaken by the Andhra Pradesh government for the development of aspirational districts in the State by the AP officials on Saturday.

The AP officials took part in a video-conference convened by the Prime Minister and the NITI Aayog CEO on Saturday to evaluate the performance of aspirational districts in the country.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was present at the conference addressed by the Prime Minister and the NITI Aayog CEO Amitab Kant.

Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Y S R Kadapa districts are the three districts which are part of the aspirational districts programme launched by the Prime Minister. While Amitabh Kant gave a presentation on developmental progress in various fields, Collectors of backward districts described the status of their respective districts. AP officials explained the progress made in the districts with regard to the key indicators fixed. The Prime Minister interacted with the Collectors and other officials on the implementation of key government schemes via the video-conference.

The AP officials shared their experience which has led to improvement of performance of their districts on a host of indicators. The Prime Minister sought direct feedback from them about the key steps taken by them which has resulted in success in the districts, and about the challenges faced by them in this endeavour. He also asked them about how working under the aspirational districts programme has been different from their work done earlier. The officers discussed how Jan Bhagidari has been a key factor behind this success. They spoke about how they kept people working in their team motivated on a daily basis, and made efforts to develop the feeling that they were not doing a job but were performing a service. They also spoke about increased inter-departmental coordination and benefits of data driven governance.

CEO, NITI Aayog, gave an overview of the progress and implementation of the aspirational districts programme. He mentioned how the programme leveraged competitive and cooperative federalism, driven by a Team India spirit. The efforts had resulted in these districts performing remarkably better in every parameter, a fact which has been recognised independently by global experts as well.

The best practices like smart classroom initiative from Banka, Bihar; Mission Aparajita to prevent child marriages in Koraput, Odisha etc. were replicated by other districts as well. Analysis of performance of districts vis-a-vis stability of tenure of key officials of the district was also presented.

Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, Principal Secretary for School Education Budithe Rajasekhar, Principal Secretary for Health Department Anil Kumar Singhal, Special Secretary for IT, Electronics and Communications G Jayalakshmi, Secretary for Forests and Environment Vijay Kumar, Commissioner for I & PR T Vijayakumar Reddy and other senior officials were present.