Jagan to operate from Visakhapatnam office from Dasara; to focus on backward districts

Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is all set to start operating from Visakhapatnam this Dasara.

On Wednesday, a GO was issued by the Andhra Pradesh government appointing a committee of senior officials to identify suitable transit accommodation to establish a Camp Office for the Chief Minister and accommodation for supporting senior functionaries at Vizag.

According to GO, the Chief Minister may camp at Vizag for review and monitoring of the welfare and development programs of ‘backward north Andhra’ with Ministers, senior Officers, and District Administration, so that decisions taken are communicated to field-level functionaries, quickly.

As per the GO, the North Coastal districts of the State: Srikakulam, Vizianagaram Parvathipuram Manyam, Visakhapatnam, Alluri Sitharama Raju, and Anakapalli known as Uttarandhra, continue to exhibit low socio-economic development indicators in terms of health, education, irrigation, intensity, connectivity. This area is also home to a large concentration of the Tribal and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) population in the State.

Four out of five districts of the region have been identified as Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts by the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs. Further, some of the districts of the said Region are covered by the Backward Region Grant Fund. Two of the three aspirational districts identified by NITI are in the Uttarandhra Region.

Duly acknowledging the context of its historical backwardness, Section 46(3) of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 provides for incentives and special development for the North Coastal Region i.e. Uttarandhra of the State. The government has been focusing on the overall development of North Coastal districts i.e. Uttarandhra Region.

"Orders have been issued to all the Secretaries to Government, Heads of Departments, and Special Officers, to visit the North Coastal districts regularly for conducting period review and monitoring of the welfare and development programmes, implementation of Chief Minster's Assistances and decisions taken in the District Review Meetings, undertake field visits along with District Officials/night halts to familiarize themselves with local requirements and development, to develop the project implementation tracking mechanism of the schemes and programmes being implemented in the said districts," the GO said.

It was also ordered therein that for this purpose, the respective Departments may make their arrangements for transit accommodation in and surrounding areas of Visakhapatnam.