AP govt announces ''Rachchabanda'' programme

Hyderabad, Jan 13 (PTI) To shift back focus from theongoing political crisis to governance, Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today announced the launch of''Rachchabanda'' programme, aimed at taking the administrationto the villages and redressing public grievances, from January24 to February 12.

All MLAs are required to take part in the programme andvisit every village in their respective constituencies forthree weeks as per the schedule chalked out by the government.

The Chief Minister will tour each district and take partin the programme in select villages, according to a pressrelease from the CMO.

Kiran Reddy held a high-level meeting with ministers andsenior officials today on the subject.

Public grievances relating to ration cards, socialsecurity pensions, health insurance scheme, housing andMahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programmewill be the prime focus during the programme.

The Rachchabanda programme was originally planned by thenChief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy but he met with a tragicend on September 2, 2009, the day he was supposed to launchit.

The state government has decided to enhance the dailywage under MGNREGP from Rs 100 to Rs 121 and also provide 25extra days of work to those who had already completed 100 daysof mandatory work this year. (More) PTI DBV VKV

Temporary ration coupons will be issued to about five lakh families to draw essential commodities under the publicdistribution system for three months. Permanent ration cardswill be issued to these families subsequently, the releasesaid.

More than 4.7 lakh houses for poor under the Indirammascheme, that remained incomplete, too would be taken up andcompleted soon. The Rachchabanda programme will also be takenup in civic wards in urban areas.

Ministers Kanna Lakshminarayana (Housing), N RaghuveeraReddy (Revenue), Dharmana Prasada Rao (Roads and Buildings), DSridhar Babu (Civil Supplies), P Sudarshan Reddy (MajorIrrigation), D Raja Narasimha (Higher Education), ChiefSecretary S V Prasad and other senior official attended themeeting, the release said.