The Hindu : Ministers get `money power'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 12, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Ministers get `money power'

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD June 11. Crossing the thin line dividing the party and the Government, the Telugu Desam Ministers will now be authorised to spend up to Rs. 1 crore each for `resolving people's problems' highlighted during the Jana Chaitanyam yatras.

The TDP president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, justified this decision on the ground that the political bureaucracy was supreme and must have a greater say in the administration. They were, after all, accountable for implementing the TDP manifesto.

Addressing a news conference here on Wednesday, Mr. Naidu ruled out the question of distributing the money in all the 294 Assembly constituencies and take up works on the recommendations of the MLAs. Only Ministers would decide the nature of works to be taken up. "You criticise me for not giving sufficient powers to Ministers. Yet you question me when I give them powers," he said.

Mr. Naidu denied that the 10-day long Jana Chaitanyam yatras beginning on Thursday were conceived as a response to the padayatra undertaken by the CLP leader, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy. He condemned the propaganda that Government was shirking its responsibility of implementing the G.O. 610. He said the Government had appointed a one-man commission to collect data about violation of the six-point formula and later agreed to the constitution of a House Committee, which held 19 sittings before submitting an interim report.

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Ministers get `money power'