Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has directed the officials to extensively utilise the services of village revenue assistants in different departments, including Irrigation, taking into consideration their educational qualifications and capabilities.
He asked the officials concerned to hold a meeting with the VRAs to elicit their views for taking forward the process. The Chief Minister constituted a Cabinet sub-committee of Ministers headed by Municipal Administration and Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao and comprising G. Jagdishwar Reddy and Satyavathi Rathod in this direction.
The Cabinet panel is expected to start discussions with the VRAs from Wednesday. The Chief Minister instructed Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari to take steps in line with the recommendations made by the Cabinet sub-committee to resolve the issue at the earliest. He said a meeting would be convened after the Cabinet panel prepares its report so that a final decision on the recommendations made could be taken. The Chief Minister was particular that the entire exercise should be completed within a week.
The Chief Minister, who reviewed the performance of the Panchayat Raj department, appreciated the key role played by the panchayat secretaries in the development in villages. The efforts of the administration at the grassroots level ensured several awards to Telangana at the national level. However, he wanted the administration at the grassroots levels not to be complacent and take steps to ensure that villages achieved the qualitative change with people’s cooperation for which sustained efforts were needed.
In this context, Mr. Rao directed the officials concerned to regularise the services of the secretaries who completed their four years’ service in line with the rules prescribed by the government. It may be recalled that the State government had entrusted the responsibility of promoting greenery in the villages and protecting the saplings planted in addition to other responsibilities to the panchayat secretaries.
The district-level committee would accordingly scrutinise the performance of the panchayat secretaries who completed their probation period. The committee had been entrusted with the responsibility of regularising services of two-thirds of the panchayat secretaries. The Chief Minister directed the Chief Secretary and Panchayat Raj department Principal Secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania to commence the process for regularisation of services of panchayat raj secretaries as early as possible.
Mr. Rao, who held a meeting with senior officials at the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat till late Tuesday evening, announced that the temple, mosque and church constructed in the new Secretariat complex would be inaugurated on August 25. The decision was taken after consulting the religious heads who suggested that August 25 was an auspicious day.
