Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday visited YSR Kadapa district which was affected by recent heavy rains and floods and interacted with affected people.

He met the farmers and flood affected people at Pulapatturu village. He walked around the village and consoled the victims.

Later, the Chief Minister attended the programme for sanctioning houses to be built in five cents of land to the people who lost their houses due to heavy rains and floods. In his remarks on the occasion, he was all praise for the officials for their quick response during the floods.

Claiming that the compensation has been given to 98 per cent of the people, he said those who missed can approach the village secretariat and get it.

The Chief Minister said 293 houses were damaged in Pulapatturu village and the state government will build each house in five cents for them. He said the state government would provide compensation to every farmer who lost the crop and added that Rs 12,000 would be given to them to clear sand dunes in their farms.

He said employment would be provided to everyone through MGNREGS works as there won’t be agriculture works due to the breach of two projects. He assured women that a moratorium would be imposed for a year on their DWACRAA loans.

Reddy said educated youth, who suffered losses, will be provided jobs and loans within 10 days. He said six Deputy Collectors were assigned to carry out relief works in the villages and they would be available till Sunday to solve all the problems.

The Chief Minister said Pincha dam and Annamayya dam will be redesigned and constructed to handle more flood inflows and added that retaining walls will be constructed along the sides of residential areas till Nandaluru bridge to avoid flood water entering into those areas.

A depression in Bay of Bengal from November 13 to November 20 triggered heavy to very heavy rains in south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema.

The heavy rains and floods battered Nellore, Chittoor, Kadapa, and Anantapur districts, leaving at least 40 people dead. According to officials, 25 people went missing. A total of 1,402 villages in 196 mandals and four towns were affected.

The cost of the crops damage and loss to infrastructure is estimated at over Rs 6,000 crore.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday sought NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar’s support for the progress and development of the state.

Reddy also urged the NITI Aayog to provide adequate assistance to streamline power generation as DISCOMS are facing severe losses.

At a meeting with the NITI Aayog team on Wednesday, state government officials sought assistance to grant special status, industrial concessions and tax exemptions on par with those enjoyed by the backward regions like Koraput and Bolangir in Odisha, and Bundelkhand.

The officials highlighted the financial difficulties being faced by the state following its bifurcation. They pointed out that the loss of Hyderabad has eroded large-scale revenues, even as promises such as special status have not been fulfilled.

The NITI Aayog team was informed that per capita income in Andhra Pradesh is much lower than Telangana, a release issued by the state government stated.

The state has also requested the NITI Aayog team to pursue the Rs 6,284 crore arrears from Telangana power utilities, and also to clear the Rs 18,969 crore resource gap amount as confirmed by the CAG.

YSRCP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy already has the dubious distinction of not caring a damn about constitutional norms and procedures.

In his two and a year half rule as CM, Jagan took several decisions in violation of constitutional norms and procedures due to which his government faced and is facing hundreds of cases in courts.

CM Jagan received a drubbing from courts on several occasions for his controversial decisions violating constitutional norms and procedures.

Latest, Jagan overrode the Centre’s powers and gave extension to a lady IAS officer on his own on the day of her retirement.

The Centre’s DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training) has powers regarding the service conditions of IAS officers.

DoPT’s permission is must to extend the service of IAS.

All these years, the Chief Ministers of various states sought DoPT approval for extension of service of chief secretaries and DGPs.

Jagan also secured extension of service to his chief secretaries Neelam Sahani, Adityanath Das and Sammer Sharma from DoPT.

But Jagan has now given extension on his own to IAS officer V.Usha Rani, who is working as principal secretary in revenue department.

Usha Rani, a 1995 batch IAS officer, was supposed to retire on November 30 (yesterday).

Employees associations also arranged a grand felicitation programme on the occasion of her retirement on November 30.

But Jagan all of a sudden issued orders on November 30 extending her service by one more month and appointed her in the same post as principal secretary of revenue department. Jagan did not take permission of DoPT to give extension of Usha Rani.

Bureaucratic circles are shocked to know this development as they had never witnessed such instances in AP or any other state where an IAS officer was given extension by a state government on its own without DoPT approval.

It remains to be seen how DoPT reacts to Jagan overriding its powers.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Sunday created a record of sorts by securing extension for Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma by six more months.

Sameer Sharma is set to retire in two days on November 30.

However, the Centre issued orders on Sunday extending the tenure of Sameer Sharma by six more months until May 31, 2022 following the request from AP CM YS Jagan.

With this, Jagan scored a ‘hat trick’ by securing extension for all the three Chief Secretaries appointed by him after he became CM in May 2019.

When Jagan took over as CM in May 2019, LV Subramanyam was the Chief Secretary, who was appointed by the Election Commission of India during TDP government in April 2019 after YSRCP complained that then CS Anil Chandra Punetha was working in favour of TDP during general electrons held in April 2019.

After Jagan became CM in May 2014, he continue LV Subramanyam as CS.

But Jagan all of a sudden removed Subramanyam from CS post unceremoniously and posted him in an insignificant post in AP Human Resource Development Institute, Bapatla in November 2019.

Jagan appointed Neelam Sahni as CS in November 2019.

She was supposed to retire on June 30, 2020, but Jagan secured extension by six months until December 31, 2020.

Later, he appointed Adityanath Das as CS in January 2021. He was supposed to retire in June 2021.

Jagan secured extension by three months until September 2021.

Later, Jagan appointed Sameer Sharma as CS in October 2021. He was supposed to retire on November 30, 2021.

Jagan has now secured extension by six more months to Sameer Sharma.

The Centre has been rejecting the requests of CMs to extend the tenure of Chief Secretaries in other states.

But in the case of Jagan, the Centre has approved all the requests made by Jagan seeking extension of tenure of Chief Secretaries.

YSRCP circles say this shows the good rapport Jagan enjoys with Modi government at the Centre.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has urged the Centre to sanction an interim relief of Rs 1,000 crore to the state and depute an inter-ministerial Central team for assessing damages in the flood-affected districts.

The Chief Minister wrote letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking the Central grant.

He requested the Centre to come to the rescue of the state in this hour of crisis and immediately provide relief to the affected families and restore normalcy by undertaking repairs and restoration of damaged infrastructure.

He also requested the Prime Minister to depute an inter-ministerial Central team at the earliest to assess the damage and losses caused by the heavy rains.

He mentioned that the cost of the crops damage and loss to infrastructure is estimated at Rs 6,054.29 crore.

The Chief Minister wrote that depression in Bay of Bengal during November 13 to 20 triggered heavy to very heavy rains in southern part of the state.

Four south coastal districts and four Rayalaseema districts received 11.1 cm rainfall during the period against the normal rainfall of 3.2 cm with deviation of 255.5 per cent.

The Chief Minister added that heavy rains lashed temple town of Tirupati, Tirumala, Nellore town, Madanapalli, Rajampet town etc, causing inundation of low-lying areas and disrupting the normal life. Inundation in the affected areas was so much that 17 NDRF/SDRF teams and two helicopters had to be deployed for undertaking search and rescue operations.

Forty people, including an SDRF constable who was on a search and rescue operation, have died and 25 others were still reported missing. About 1,402 villages in 196 mandals and four towns were affected. A total of 324 relief camps were opened accommodating about 69,616 people, Reddy wrote.

Several highways, irrigation tanks and canals got breached and damaged at several places in Kadapa, Chittoor, Anantapur and Nellore district.

Heavy rains created havoc in the districts as the crops in thousands of acres suffered damage. The worst affected were the farmers as the crops that were ready for harvesting were damaged, the Chief Minister said.

Agriculture crops like paddy, bengal gram, cotton, black gram, groundnut, sunflower, sugarcane in an extent of 1.43 lakh hectares is damaged. Horticulture crops like banana, papaya, turmeric, onion and vegetables were damaged in an extent of 42,299 hectares.

About 240.90 km length of road, 59.6 km pipelines, 2,764 street lights, 197.05 km open drainage, 71 municipal schools/buildings/community centres were also damaged.

When YSRCP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy announced repealing of three capital cities bill on Monday, it shocked not just opposition parties but ven his own cabinet ministers.

This is because even his own ministers were not aware that Jagan will take such a big decision.

When Jagan convened an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday and asked his ministers to attend the emergency cabinet meeting without fail, all his ministers expected and feared that Jagan will ask them to resign to their minister posts by November 30 so that he can take new faces into the cabinet on December 1.

It may be recalled that Jagan had announced to replace all the ministers in his cabinet after his government completes first half term when he formed his cabinet in June 2019.

The first half term of YSRCP government ends on November 30, 2021.

Accordingly, ministers got themselves mentally prepared to resign after attending the emergency cabinet meeting.

But when Jagan announced his decision to repeal three capitals bill in the emergency cabinet meeting, all his ministers remained in a state of shock.

They too were unaware of Jagan taking such a big decision without consulting his ministers.

Political circles say this clearly shows Jagan is not taking even his ministers into confidence while taking such big decisions.

Ministers on the other hand say Jagan not only shocked opposition parties but also entire cabinet on the issue of repealing three capitals bill.

The AP Government is in a fix over the issue of extension of the service of Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma. The State Government has recommended an extension of Sharma’s service and if highly placed sources are to be believed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has express displeasure at AP seeking frequent extensions to retired IAS officers in the state.

Sharma is set to superannuate by November-end. He was appointed the CS only recently at the fag end of his career. He just had two months service left at the time of becoming the CS. Jagan sought a six-month extension for him. He had sought similar extension for Neelam Sahni, who too was appointed CS at the fag-end of her career. She was also made the State Election Commissioner after her retirement.

Sources say that Modi has expressed unhappiness at the frequent requests for extension of service for senior IAS officers. In fact, several senior IAS officials have questioned the rationale of appointing Sameer Sharma as he had just two months of service left. They say this sets a wrong precedent and say that Jagan’s move is ill-advised.

However, sources say that Sameer Sharma is confident of getting an extension for six months. He is said to be pulling the right strings to get the extension. Whether he would get an extension would be known in just a week or ten days.

In a sensational decision, the YSRCP government headed by Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy has withdrawn three capitals bill.

The decision was reportedly taken in the cabinet meeting chaired by CM Jagan on Monday (today).

The AP government’s decision was conveyed to AP High Court on Monday by advocate general.

However, the AP government is yet to make an official announcement in this regard.

It is not clear whether Jagan has decided to completely withdraw three capitals bill or make some changes in the existing bill to overcome legal and technical issues.

Jagan is expected to give a clarity on this issue in Legislative Assembly today.

Since the decision came in the backdrop of Amaravathi farmers holding padayatra from Amaravathi to Tirupati, farmers claim that Jagan backtracked on three capitals due to their protests.

But there are doubts that Jagan may introduce three capital bills in a revised format to overcome legal and technical hurdles to his three capitals plan.