State civic polls: CM embarks on mass contact programme

Apparently gearing up for the municipal elections ahead, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today embarked on yet another mass contact programme 'Rajiv Nagara Baata' (a road to town) to interact with the people in urban and semi-urban centres and address issues concerning them.

The programme has been launched from Rajendranagar municipality in neighbouring Ranga Reddy, from where the chief minister had embarked on a marathon 'padayatra' in April 2003 that helped energise the Congress cadre and finally storm to power in the Assembly elections last year.

The weekly programme will see Reddy visit two municipal towns every Sunday, address public meetings and receive applications from people on pending local problems.

The focus of 'Rajiv Nagara Baata' would be to improve basic services, livelihood enhancement, reforms and bring in good urban governance in cities and towns across the state, officials said.

The new programme would be coordinated at the state level by project management committee in the office of the commissioner and director of municipal administration, the officials said, adding that it would be guided by senior secretary-level officials from various departments.

The city-based Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) would provide technical support for rapid assessment and independent evaluation of the works to be taken up under the programme.

Special rapid assessment and feedback on towns (RAFT) teams would be set up to prepare reports, containing action plans to address the gaps identified in urban services, at the end of each visit by chief minister.

These reports would then be sent to respective district collectors and to the chief minister's office. The action plans would cover three categories "� short-term measures with a time frame of three months, medium-term (six months) and long-term measures (more than nine months).