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Pawan Kalyan assumes office as Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister
Actor-turned-politician and Jana Sena Party president Konidela Pawan Kalyan on Wednesday assumed charge as the deputy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, holding portfolios of panchayat raj and rural development, rural water supply, environment and forests and science and technology.
Actor-turned-politician and Jana Sena Party president Konidela Pawan Kalyan on Wednesday assumed charge as the deputy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, holding portfolios of panchayat raj and rural development, rural water supply, environment and forests and science and technology.
Amid chants of Vedic hymns by priests, Pawan Kalyan entered his camp office in Vijayawada and took his chair at around 10.30am after conducting special prayers for Lord Venkateshwara.
After occupying his chair, the deputy chief minister signed two files – one pertaining to linking of Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Programme with horticulture works and the other on construction of gram panchayat buildings in tribal areas.
Principal secretary, panchayat raj and rural development Shashibhushan Kumar, panchayat raj commissioner Kanna Babu, principal chief conservator of forests Chiranjeevi Chowdary and other higher officials were present on the occasion.
Several Jana Sena Party leaders including his brother K Naga Babu, state civil supplies minister Nadendla Manohar and others congratulated Pawan Kalyan on assuming the office.
Later, the deputy chief minister held a series of meetings with senior officials of the departments concerned to review their functioning.
NAIDU ACCORDS HIGH PRIORITY TO PAWAN
Though Pawan Kalyan is a first-time MLA and minister, Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been according him high priority in the coalition government of the NDA, people close to the development in the TDP, said.
Apart from conferring the deputy chief minister status to the Jana Sena Party chief, Naidu has instructed officials that Pawan Kalyan gets equal importance in terms of protocol and other facilities at all government functions and meetings.
“Pawan Kalyan has been allotted a convoy of bullet proof vehicles, which no other cabinet colleague has got. Naidu also instructed that all the public serving offices and institutions should have the framed photographs of both the chief minister and deputy chief minister. It shows how much importance Naidu is giving him,” the TDP leader quoted above said.
Naidu also got a big chamber allotted to the ‘power star’ in block-2 of the state secretariat. The two other Jana Sena Party ministers, too, got their chambers in the same block.
On Tuesday, when Pawan Kalyan entered the secretariat for the first time to inspect the chambers, he was accorded a guard of honour welcome by the police. “It is a rare privilege for Pawan Kalyan. Hitherto, such guard of honour was given only for the chief minister,” the TDP leader said.
