
Need to increase number of P4 Margadarsis: CM
He reviewed the implementation of the P4 initiative launched with the goal of achieving zero-poverty at the Secretariat on Wednesday. The review focused on the identification of Margadarsis and the selection of Bangaru (golden) families. Officials explained that out of 19,15,771 Bangaru families identified across the state under the P4 model, 87,395 families have so far been adopted by Margadarsis. The Chief Minister directed officials to establish systems that provide necessary information and guidance to those interested in becoming guides. He emphasised conducting surveys to assess the condition of families before and after their adoption as Bangaru families to evaluate improvements in their living standards. He also called for regular auditing of the programme's implementation, quarterly reviews, and timely feedback to guides on the impact of P4 through reports. He suggested organizing special programs with industrialists, NRIs, celebrities, and people from elite sections of society to explain the P4 concept and invite them to participate as Margadarsis.
He said he would personally reach out to CEOs, COOs, CFOs, MDs, and chairpersons of the top 100 companies to invite their participation in the programme. He also announced plans to virtually interact with Telugu people living in India and abroad to explain the importance and goals of the program and invite them to become guides.
The Chief Minister shared the idea of appointing NRIs as P4 advisors and encouraging them to serve as guides. He reviewed various logos designed to promote the Zero Poverty and P4 concept and said one logo will be selected soon. He also suggested that March 30, the date when P4 was launched, should be celebrated annually to showcase the achievements of the programme. Finance minister Payyavula Keshav and officials from the finance and planning departments participated.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New Indian Express
36 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
AP launches ‘Green Passport' in 46,000 schools to nurture young eco-warriors
VIJAYAWADA: In a major step toward environmental stewardship, the state government has launched the 'Green Passport' initiative, aimed at nurturing young eco-warriors across more than 46,000 schools in the State. The programme, inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's national campaign Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam, encourages students to plant or adopt a tree in honour of their mothers — blending emotional resonance with environmental action. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu officially launched the initiative on July 10 during the Mega Parent-Teacher Meeting (Mega PTM 2.0). Since then, the programme has gained rapid momentum, transforming school campuses into hubs of greenery and environmental learning. From Grade 4 onwards, students are actively participating by planting saplings, adopting existing trees, and tracking their growth using a personalised digital booklet titled My Journey with Plant Growth. Each tree is assigned a unique QR code containing botanical information and care guidelines. Students are required to log progress updates, which are verified by teachers to ensure ongoing engagement. The entire ecosystem is managed through the LEAP app, which enables geo-tagging and real-time monitoring of each tree. According to the Department of School Education, over 1.93 million students have already enrolled in the programme. B Srinivasa Rao, SPD of Samagra Siksha – AP and architect of the initiative, told TNIE, 'This programme is fundamentally changing our relationship with nature in schools. Our children are now guardians of these trees. The impact will be visible within a year as campuses across the state turn greener and more vibrant.'


New Indian Express
36 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
AP partners with MasterCard to boost tourism experience in state
VIJAYAWADA: In a move to elevate Andhra Pradesh's appeal as a premier tourist destination, the Tourism Department, in collaboration with MasterCard, organised a strategic workshop at its office in Vijayawada. The session focused on designing immersive, world-class tourism experiences tailored to MasterCard holders and global travellers. Tourism officials, MasterCard representatives, and key stakeholders participated in discussions on developing innovative tourism circuits, strengthening branding, and improving digital outreach. The aim is to transform routine visits into enriching journeys aligned with international expectations. Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) Managing Director Amrapali Kata said that under the guidance of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Tourism Minister Kandula Durgesh, and Special Chief Secretary Ajay Jain, efforts are underway to position Andhra Pradesh as a top tourism hub in South Asia. A central focus of the workshop was the creation of a unique tourism tagline and thematic brand identity for the state. Officials proposed launching the new brand on World Tourism Day in September, with support from MasterCard's global expertise in marketing and digital integration. Discussions included sustainable tourism models that involve local communities and promote cultural exchange. MasterCard delegates appreciated the department's vision and expressed their willingness to collaborate further. Calling the session insightful, they affirmed confidence in Andhra Pradesh's potential to offer diverse experiences.


Deccan Herald
an hour ago
- Deccan Herald
Five municipal corporations: The Greater Bengaluru Jigsaw puzzle
Bengaluru: 'In 1990, when I became a councillor for the first time, Bengaluru city was just 180 sqkm. In 1995, it expanded to 225 sq km. Then came seven town municipal councils and one city municipal council around it. In 2005, it expanded to the 800 sqkm range as Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP),' remarks P R Ramesh, who was the mayor of Bengaluru in 2002, just when the information technology boom started consuming the the area, wards, population and administrative challenges in governing Bengaluru also increased. The erstwhile Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government attempted to redraw the ward boundaries of Bengaluru but was unable to hold the municipal elections. .The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government recently passed the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act and notified the five-way division of Bengaluru, paving the way for one reform that can help resolve many issues in the city if implemented correctly, but can also easily cause a mess if not handled carefully..'Anti-Kannada'.Like any other exercise related to Bengaluru, this also has turned into a BJP-Congress tug of war. Ramesh N R, former president of the BJP- Bengaluru South District, calls it a 'major conspiracy that renders Kannadigas orphans', 'extremely unscientific' and 'a conspiracy to sideline the original residents of this land'..He says the move is anti-Kannada, with the central part being dominated by Urdu and Tamil, the North by Urdu and Telugu, the South by Urdu, Telugu, and some Kannada, and the East by Telugu and North Indian languages. He brands the Western part as 'the only area retaining a Kannada majority'..'As a result, Kannada-speaking members will be permanently denied the mayoral post in four out of the five new corporations. Only Urdu, Telugu, or Tamil speakers are likely to become mayors. This is a grave injustice to Kannadigas and a decision that cannot be undone,' he are also political motives, as seen in this step. 'In the past two elections held after the formation of BBMP in 2007, the Congress could win only 58 and 76 out of 198 wards. To end the BJP's hold over BBMP, the Siddaramaiah government has now devised this strategy,' he says in a note..'In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Rajarajeshwarinagar Assembly Constituency played a major role in the defeat of the Congress candidate by giving a lead of over 90,000 votes to the BJP. Dividing this constituency into three separate corporations appears to be political vengeance,' he says. He adds that the division of the Padmanabhanagar Constituency, represented by Opposition Leader R Ashoka, reflects the politics of jealousy..'Greater Bengaluru': D K Shivakumar announces multi-storey parking lots near court lists problems such as financial imbalance, unemployment, and real estate issues, which he says corporations in Delhi have faced. 'Eventually, the three corporations had to be merged again,' he other metro cities, such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Hyderabad, function under single corporations; so, why should Bengaluru be any different? He asks..P R Ramesh, who is a Congress politician, remarks that the move is necessary to help decentralise the city administration. 'The city has been growing beyond imagination without proper planning. We need to take such steps to ensure that development is planned well. Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) will coordinate between all the corporations and ensure the functioning of the corporation is smooth,' he logic behind GBA Act has three conditions hard-coded into it: No corporation should have less than 10 lakh population. The minimum property tax collected should be Rs 300 crores. The population density (population/sqkm) should be greater than 5,000. The GBA Act says assembly constituencies should fit within a corporation 'to the extent possible'. .The Brand Bengaluru Committee, tasked with the division, had to incorporate all these parameters while dividing BBMP into five challenge was to obtain the official population figures for such a major exercise, as the last census was conducted in 2011. Various datasets were also used for this purpose. .'There is a figure of 1.44 crore population estimated for the BBMP area and for 28 assembly constituencies in 2023 by the district election commissioner, but this does not have ward-wise population, which is important in the context of BBMP division,' says V Ravichandar, who is a part of the committee. .'On paper, BBMP has 225 wards, but since no elections were held, these wards did not take root in administration. Therefore, the pre-2021 era data for 198 wards is the basis for all statistics. We used this,' he explains. .The committee also obtained booth-level voter data from the district election officer and estimated the number of voters in the ward, then extrapolated this to the total population using the voter-population ratio for Bengaluru assembly constituencies to arrive at the population next challenge was to figure out the revenue for each new corporation. .'In Delhi, the division failed because they have no overarching structure like GBA. They also had huge differences in their property tax revenues, resulting in imbalances,' he says, adding that the aim was to minimise property tax disparity. .BBMP's latest 2024-25 property tax data was used to estimate this. The East division had the largest area, low population, but high revenue. The West division had a higher population but lower revenue. Efforts were made to minimise revenue disparity, with various permutations and combinations. .When a balancing act was attempted, more assembly constituencies were cut, or the population disparity between East and West became huge. Increasing the East population to over 10 lakhs without a significant impact on property tax increases was challenging. .The jigsaw puzzle of balancing population, revenue, and constituencies finally resulted in a model where the maximum difference between the corporation (as per the 2024-25 property tax receipt data) is approximately Rs 360 crore. This proposal was cleared by the State Cabinet and has been gazetted as a draft notification, superseding the BBMP Act five out of 28 assembly constituencies are getting cut: Yashwanthpura and Padmanabhanagar are shared between West and South, Dasarahalli is shared between North and West, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, which is in the West, also extends to North and a very small part to the South as well; and Mahadevpura extends from East to South. .Would this impact any of the MLAs of those constituencies?.'Since MLA is a part of the corporation, he/she has voting rights in the Corporation in which a large part of the constituency falls. They can attend the council proceedings in any Corporation where their constituency extends, but they can not vote there,' explains Ravichandar. This means there is no problem practically for MLAs to state gives 60-70% of the overall capital expenditure budget as grants to the BBMP under various schemes, which will continue in future as well. The property tax revenue will be allocated to salaries, maintenance, and revenue expenditure. There will also be inflows into the Corporations from SFC and CFC next?.Both the BJP and the Congress Party have been exploring various ways to govern Bengaluru more effectively, while also trying to balance their interests. As a result, every new proposal, from the master plan to city governance models and elections, reaches the courts. Civic groups also join such fights with objections and reasons. .The draft of the five-way division has been notified, and people can submit their objections and observations within 30 days. Once the draft is revised and modifications are made, the final notification will be published. .Then comes the ward delimitation exercise, which involves redrawing ward boundaries in each ward. Each city corporation can have up to 150 wards per the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act. This exercise is likely to take its own time, as no party is generally happy with what the other political party the corporations are formed, there will also be an administrative and infrastructural overhaul, including the division and movement of files among various sections, as well as numerous other time can reveal how long all these processes will take, and when Bengaluru will see the five corporations actually functioning. Meanwhile, the city will continue to be governed without councillors, who form the foundation of local democracy.