Another first from AP

Hyderabad: The AP state which was the first one to have a video conference system up to district-level in the country, added one more feather to its cap on Monday by taking the facility to mandal-level. This will help the government to conduct multilevel video conferencing at finger tips, thus saving valuable time, says Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy during the inauguration of the world class ‘video conference system’ facility up to mandal-level at Secretariat. “With this AP has become the first State in India to provide High Definition Video Conferencing facility up to mandal level,” he further said.

The event was organised to commemorate Mee Seva’s historic achievements in crossing three crore transactions and reaching 225 services. The Chief Minister explained that the video conferencing facility would inter-connect the State capital with 23 Districts and 1,126 mandal offices including all RDO offices in the State including Chief Planning offices and all Project Directors of ITDAs in the State.

“The system will bring absolute transparency in the government functioning and in taking administration to the people's doorsteps and it will help the government, the district administration and the people, particularly during cyclone, drought and flood relief works and preparedness”, he said, adding that it will help in regular monitoring and review of welfare schemes and e-Governance projects. The Chief Minister said that Andhra Pradesh was adjudged as the best state in good governance by India Today recently. This was mostly due to e-Governance initiatives and more so the Mee Seva and video conferencing facilities. “Every officer and staff is part of this successful initiative and we can be proud of this achievement. With this facility, he said, the government can now periodically review various welfare programmes and other initiatives and its implementation at mandal-level.”

The Chief Minister, later, spoke to Kalikiri MRO through the video conference at the Secretariat and enquired about how he was resolving the pleas received on the ‘petitions day’ on December 9. He also interacted with revenue divisional officer and enquired about the petitions the official received from the people and directed him to take a decision on them immediately. Referring to the incrasing demand for Mee Seva services, he said that the Mee-Seva centres have been increased from 400 in 2011 to 7,000 in 2013, thereby providing employment to more than 12,000 youth. Minister for Information Technology and Communications Ponnala Lakshmaiah explained about the various initiatives of IT department besides Mee Seva and Video Conferencing facility like the AP data centre phase-II and phase-III on the occasion.