VIJAYAWADA: The Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, has reviewed the status and projections of Civic Supplies presented by special chief secretary Mr B. Rajasekhar. He has briefed the Chief Minister on the status of existing ration cards as well as the new ones disbursed. He also informed him that the state currently has 1,42,27,604 ration cards, and during Janmabhoomi alone, 2,36,905 new ration cards were allotted.

Mr Rajasekhar also informed the CM that by February 7, 2018, every Assembly constituency will have one village mall store under the Chandranna Village Mall scheme. The Chief Minister said that procedural irregularities and delays in decision making are challenges that officials need to address at the earliest. “Praja Sadhikara Survey is the final authority for socio economic indicators and if the cases are genuine, we are willing to make certain exemptions, he added.





Later, principal secretary (Health) Ms Poonam Malakondaiah, in her presentation to the Chief Minister stated that there has been an improvement of 2.68 per cent in the health sector across all 13 districts, compared to the previous quarter. The CM said that in the next one year, the state should be free of all communicable diseases. “You can use drones for application of anti-malaria spray, and data should be analysed to come up with many more innovative preventive measures, based on the root causes of other diseases,” he said.

The principal secretary (Health) presented that Srikakulam has the highest improvement of 8.66 per cent, followed by Guntur and Krishna. In the immunisation of 0 to 1-year-olds, there has been an overall improvement of 11 per cent. There has also been a decline in maternal deaths, except for Vizianagaram and Kurnool, she said. The CM also asked the collectors of West Godavari and Vizag to focus on preventing infant deaths.