Vijayawada: This Monday marked an inspiring day in the life of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
Naidu became the youngest chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh at the age of 45 on September 1, 1995. He remained as the state’s leading politician for 30 long years, but with occasional setbacks, and functioned as CM through four terms. His present term, starting from the middle of 2024, would continue till 2029.
The 75-year-old Naidu, who heads the Telugu Desam and the state government that it runs, is seen as an outstanding administrator, notable for his vision as also for his planning and grounding of innovative schemes. The leap that Hyderabad made in the IT sector, which turned out to be a money-spinner for the state and job creator of immense proportions, happened under Naidu’s stewardship as chief minister there.
Naidu’s famous obsession has been for linking of rivers, which he feels would pave the way for the prosperity of all regions across the country. He’s also striving hard, through his two terms as chief minister of the new Andhra Pradesh state, for developing Amaravati from a mass of marshy lands to the level of a world-class modern capital.
The chief minister is committed to complete the Polavaram project, the lifeline for AP, by the end of 2027. He commissioned the Pattiseema lift irrigation scheme in January 2018 and linked both the Godavari and Krishna rivers through the Polavaram canal.
Naidu had faced epic setbacks in his political career. He led his Telugu Desam party to repeated defeats in the 2004 and 2009 assembly polls and this prompted many to script his political obituary. A cited reason was the disquiet in villages, where farmers felt he neglected them while concentrating his attention on urban development. Naidu, however, staged a dramatic return after state bifurcation, winning the polls and becoming the first chief minister of the residuary Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Naidu was bundled out of power by the YSRC and its leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in 2019; but, in a sweet revenge, he ‘uprooted’ the YSRC and Jagan Reddy in the 2024 assembly polls with able support from the Jana Sena of actor Pawan Kalyan and the BJP.
As CM now, Naidu stresses on the protection of interests of farmers. He’s encouraging them to adopt natural farming for quality perfection so as to also meet the global standards for food products. This, he claims, resulted in attracting investments worth Rs 9,000 crore in AP’s food processing sector alone last year. Naidu claims to have won investment promises totaling some Rs 9 lakh crore for the state in the last over one year.
‘The IT savvy CM is now focusing his attention on developing Amaravati as a Quantum Computing Valley. Naidu has gone step further in utilising advanced technology by providing 700 public services through WhatsApp in the name of Mana Mitra WhatsApp governance platform. This would help people to get governmental services done for them via their phones, without the need to visit offices in person. This is likely to reduce corruption and bribe-taking by officials.
The chief minister, during his present term, also launched Dwcra groups, the first of its kind self-help women’s collectives for their economic uplift. The system is now being followed by other states. His novel P-4 programme aims at uplift of the poor with able backing from the affluent sections of the society.
Naidu brought administration closer to the people by introducing the Prajala Vaddaku Palana and involving people in serving their native villages through the Janmabhoomi programme.
The chief minister developed the Vision-2020 policy during his early years of tenure and is now advocating Swarnandhra 2047 to transform AP into a $2.4 trillion economy. Naidu, who promoted the ‘one techie for each family’ goal earlier, is now promoting the idea of ‘one entrepreneur for each family’.
Naidu claims to be giving top priority for the welfare of BCs, SCs, STs and the minorities and has launched several schemes for their education and enrichment. He also claims to have ensured better representation for women and BCs in administration at the grassroots level.
The CM’s reforms in the power sector brought stability to generation and supplies and he is now focussing on green energy. He’s also promoting solar and wind energy sectors.
