Blair lauds good governance initiatives of Naidu

Amaravati: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair lauded the good governance initiatives being adopted by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. He visited the AP Secretariat on Monday and interacted with the officials at Real Time Governance Society, where he learnt about the technology being used in the governance by Naidu.

Tony Blair said that most exciting things in the world were happening in Andhra Pradesh. He said that the world could learn a lot from the Andhra Pradesh in inducting technology into the governance. “It is amazing. I am shocked to see these developments. You are leading a revolution. We learned a lot from you,” said Blair to Naidu.

He also added that even though both of them entered into the politics at the same time, the Chief Minister was continuing while he withdrew from active politics. On this occasion, Chief Minister said that Tony Blair came to Hyderabad for the first time when he was the Chief Minister of the united AP, on the suggestion of Bill Clinton.

Naidu said that Tony Blair was the first youngest Prime Minister of his country and introduced many reforms in governance. Chandrababu Naidu pointed out that he created a Knowledge City Hyderabad. I constructed first building HiTech City and invited former US President Bill Gates.

Then Bill Gates started his office for the first time in Hyderabad. The Chief Minister said that he created the best infrastructure in Hyderabad and was responsible for greenfield airport.

“After bifurcation we came to AP and Hyderabad has gone to Telangana. We started the journey from zero,” Naidu said to the visiting dignitary. “I have given vision document for AP, like 2020 for Hyderabad. Now, we have vision 2050,”Naidu pointed out.

He said that the government can monitor groundwater table, air, moisture, weather conditions and everything from RTGS and there by taking preventive measures during the natural calamities like cyclones and others.

Naidu also explained the reforms being brought about in the revenue department. “We have been changing the traditional pattern of land records. State government is providing separate code with geo-tagging of each particular patch of land. This enhanced the efficiency in delivering the land services to citizens and also providing greater security to their land properties,” Chandrababu Naidu explained.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the State government has been implementing a Comprehensive Financial Management System. Ravichandra, Secretary, Finance, explained, “We are the only State government in the country to use this technology to ensure accountability in public spending. This is rare in India. Even the Government of India does not have this technology which explains each and every single penny spent.”

Each and every file being cleared on time basis and can be monitored from anywhere, he said. Rajasekhar, Secretary, Agriculture department, explained that they have been monitoring the wind movement and moisture and thereby they have been predicting the pest. This forecast is helping in handling the pest effectively, he said. He said that recently they controlled a pest that basically attacks maize and other crops.