Minister Nara Lokesh aims to bring radical changes in the education sector in Andhra Pradesh. Yes, AP Minister Lokesh has started working at jet speed. Even though he served as a minister in the previous TDP government, he has now completely changed his action plan and increased his speed. He is making decisions that bring him closer to the people. Even before officially taking up his responsibilities, he hit the ground running. Mangalgiri constituency had not seen a TDP victory in its 39-year history, but Nara Lokesh raised the TDP flag on his second attempt.
He achieved a record victory for the Telugu Desam Party. Lokesh worked with the goal of winning back where they had lost. As the son of Chandrababu Naidu, Lokesh had the freedom to choose a strong constituency for an assured win, but he chose a tough path instead. He stood and won in a challenging constituency, ultimately winning the hearts of the people of Mangalgiri.
Taking inspiration from Chandrababu Naidu, who turned crises into opportunities, Lokesh has been showing the same mark since the government took office. He has increased precision in his work. Understanding what AP needs now and how to show progress in his assigned departments, he has not delayed and completed the groundwork. Balancing administration, party activities, and countering opposition, he has been surprising everyone. He has surrounded himself with a dynamic team and increased his pace.
In the past, YSRCP criticized Lokesh for becoming a minister through recommendation without winning direct elections. Despite serving for a short period in the IT department, he accelerated progress. After losing in Mangalgiri in 2019, he faced intense criticism from YSRCP leaders but bore it all and stood proudly with a grand victory. Not only that, he decided to take immediate decisions to relieve the people of Mangalgiri who had elected him. On day one, he set up a public darbar at his camp office to listen to people’s grievances directly and ensure timely resolution through a dedicated task force.
Recognizing what the people had missed from their rulers in the past five years, Minister Nara Lokesh directly received petitions through the public darbar, ensuring solutions and instilling confidence. He plans to expand this program across the state, showing a significant impact on the public who feel they finally have a leader to listen to their issues.
Minister Nara Lokesh is fulfilling his election promise of keeping his doors open to the people through the public darbar. He aims to transform Mangalgiri into a model constituency. Holding key departments in his second term as a minister, including the IT and now the education department, Lokesh has been showing his unique mark from day one. He announced a 100-day action plan for the IT and Electronics sectors and conducted review meetings, focusing on bringing new IT and electronics companies to the state by providing incentives and studying best practices from other regions.
Lokesh plans to make Visakhapatnam an IT hub and Tirupati an electronics hub, setting targets for officials to place AP at the top in these sectors. He is preparing to implement a new investor-friendly IT policy soon. Focusing on restoring the lost glory of the IT and Electronics departments, Lokesh is also concentrating on the education department. He plans to meet with teacher and student unions, and parents, to address deep-rooted issues in the education system based on their expectations.
His priorities include providing quality mid-day meals to poor children, ensuring teachers focus solely on teaching responsibilities, improving infrastructure in schools, resolving pending issues in higher education, removing legal hurdles for faculty recruitment, and providing high-quality school kits for children. Lokesh has set targets for officials to ensure full infrastructure in schools within a year and implement best sanitation practices by studying other states.
During a review with higher education officials, Lokesh expressed shock that the previous YSRCP government stopped providing textbooks to government college students and questioned how poor students could study without books. He decided to immediately provide textbooks and notebooks to intermediate students from this academic year, setting a deadline of July 15 for distribution, putting officers in a rush to meet the target. Alongside these efforts, Lokesh also emphasized utilizing central funds effectively.
Overall, before officially taking on his responsibilities, Minister Nara Lokesh completed an initial exercise on his assigned departments, and it seems his action plan will gain even more speed after taking charge.