Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy declares cleaning up of system his top priority

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has promised to provide a corruption-free and transparent government to the people of his state, apart from ensuring the delivery of government services and schemes to all eligible beneficiaries at their doorsteps without any discrimination.

Reddy was sworn-in as the new chief minister at an oath taking ceremony conducted at Vijaywada Municipal Stadium on Thursday afternoon amidst loud cheers by thousands of his party supporters. Telangana chief minister K Chandra Sekhara Rao and DMK president M K Stalin were the special guests on this occasion.

Soon after Governer E S L Narasimhan administered to him the oath of office and the oath of secrecy, Reddy declared that he would bring in certain drastic changes in the tendering of government contracts and also clean the system at all levels to provide a corruption free administration in the state.

These measures would include a reverse tendering system, encourage maximum number of participants to increase competition in every tender by doing away with the tailer-made pre-qualification practice, vetting of each contract and pre-qualification criteria by a judicial commission headed by a sitting high court judge among other things, Jagan informed.

Going a step further, the new chief minister also declared that if irregularities were found in 

any of the existing government contracts, they would be cancelled and inquiries would be launched into the said irregularities. 

YSR Congress Party, launched a little over 8 years ago by Jagan Mohan Reddy had swept both, the state assembly and Parliament elections in Andhra Pradesh by winning 151 out of 175 assembly seats and 21 out of 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in the simultaneous polls held on March 10. 

Corruption-free governance assumes significance particularly in the light of the accusation of corruption levelled against Jagan in the past by the opposition parties through alleged use of his father's office. The agenda also gives him an opportunity to look into the decisions of his predecessor N Chandrababu Naidu during his tenure as chief minister in the recent past, as well as, in the undivided AP. 

The chief minister also announced that his government would appoint 4.5 lakh village volunteers  - one volunteer for 50 households  - and around 1.5 lakh staff to the village secretariats that would be responsible to take all the government schemes to the people at village level. The government would give a monthly honorarium of Rs 5000 to each village volunteer who would assist people in getting their grievances redressed within 72 hours and deliver schemes at the peoples' doorsteps. 

The new chief minister also announced that the social security pensions would be renamed after his father as YSR Pension and would be raised to Rs 3,000 per month in stages starting with Rs 2,250 from this month to senior citizens and other eligible beneficiaries.