The maiden e-Cabinet meet held with the Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, at the conference hall of the first block in the State Secretariat on Wednesday on the lines of paperless Cabinet meet organised between 2014 and 2019 was a resounding success.
The Cabinet decided to delete the names, photos of the former chief minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, and the logos of the political outfits on the pattadar passbooks and issue 21.86 lakh fresh passbooks with the official emblem. The photos of Jagan will also be removed from the 77 lakh survey stones and also resolved not to allow registration of lands which are under various disputes.
Every Minister can have four employees in the peshis, one Public Relations Officer (PRO), one Vision Maintenance Officer and two Social Media Managers. These appointments should be completed in the coming three weeks. The Cabinet approved renaming of the Krishnapatnam Industrial City Development Limited as AP Industrial Corridors Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited and also changed the names of Orvakal and Kopparthy NODEs.
The Cabinet unanimously decided to amend the sand policy so that the people can easily get the sand and book the stocks through a digital system. The Chief Minister told his Cabinet colleagues to make everyone partners in formulating the vision document and take the advice of everyone.
About 2,774 new ration shops will be set up in the State and the Cabinet decided to provide e-pass machines at all these shops.
The Cabinet approved release of Rs 11.51 crore for purchasing these machines. The Cabinet approved to revise salaries of personal assistants (PAs) from the existing Rs 18,000 to Rs 36,000 and the personal secretaries (PSs) salaries to Rs 50,000.
Briefing media persons on the decisions taken by the Cabinet, the Minister for Information and Public Relations, Kolusu Parthasarathy, said that Wednesday’s Cabinet meet was held with the technology provided by the National Informatics Centre in New Delhi. “All the subjects, including the agenda and Cabinet notes, are available online,” the Minister said, adding that the e-Cabinet concept improves the operational efficiency which totally reflects the ground reality resulting in increasing the monitoring efficiency with an environment-friendly approach.
Parthasarathy also said that the entire system helps ministers oversee the implementation of the Cabinet decisions more effectively. Information related to the subjects can easily be accessed online from anywhere anytime besides keeping the information confident. This apart, the latest technology also helps effective monitoring and assessment of the status of implementation of the Cabinet decisions from time to time, he added.
The Minister also felt that besides comprehensive data analysis and reporting capability, there is every possibility to prevent unauthorised access to the information and provide total security to it. The features also include interlinking of virtual Cabinet meetings with the e-office and using the Artificial Intelligence (AI), he said.
“On top of it all, this helps maintain law and order in a more perfect way since supervision is easy with the CC cameras installed in private lands and buildings can be linked with the 14,000 CC cameras installed in public places,” the Minister observed. Thus, the Chief Minister indicated that steps need to be taken with a perfect action plan for its maintenance.
Adding technology to real-time governance and incident monitoring systems besides alert management can be used to directly monitor incidents in all parts of the State and take appropriate action, the Minister maintained. Using drones, potholes can be identified on roads, mosquitoes can be controlled, infections can be prevented and pesticides can be sprayed in agricultural lands at a very low cost, he stated.
The Minister said that the Cabinet approved sanction of 269 supernumerary posts to appoint them as ward and welfare development secretaries in the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department. The Ministry also approved the proposal to hold elections to irrigation farmers’ unions.
The Cabinet resolved to do away with the reverse tendering method and call for tenders in the old system. The Chief Minister told the Cabinet that a new tendering system should be implemented as per the guidelines issued by the Central Vigilance Commission, the Minister told the media.
Parthasarathy also said that the Cabinet decided to revive the Polavaram Left Bank Canal works and resolved to continue the existing contractor to execute these works. The Cabinet also decided to totally reorganise the Excise Department and also do away with the Special Enforcement Bureau.
