Officials skip Naidu visit to Polavaram!

It was a humiliation of sorts for Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu who went to Polavaram dam site to inspect the project works on Monday, notwithstanding the directions of the Election Commission that he should not take up any official programmes or conduct any official meetings.

As announced earlier, Naidu went to Polavaram and sent instructions to all the officials of the state irrigation department to attend the review meeting at Polavaram dam site.

Except engineering-in-chief Venakeshwar Rao and site engineers, no government officials attended the meeting.

Interestingly, even collectors of West and East Godavari districts, besides principal secretary to irrigation department Shashi Bhushan stayed away from Naidu’s visit, breaking the regular protocol.

There was none to receive Naidu at the Rajahmundry airport or at the helipad of the Polavaram project site. This is nothing short of big humiliation to Naidu.

The chief minister who made an aerial survey of the project site held a brief meeting with the engineers and also officials of the contracting firm Navayuga Engineering.

Now, Naidu has called for a cabinet meeting on May 10, despite the EC directions. He instructed all the officials, including chief secretary L V Subrahmanyam, to attend the cabinet meeting.

He even threatened to take action against those officials who do not attend the meeting as per the business rules.

But it is unlikely that Subrahmanyam will attend the cabinet meeting as he is bound by the EC directions and will not allow others also to attend.

Moreover, it is the chief secretary who should prepare the agenda for the cabinet meeting. If no agenda is prepared and no official notes are submitted, the cabinet cannot take any decisions.

It will end up as an unofficial or political cabinet meeting!

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