Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy today pulled up bureaucrats, saying the performance of some of them was "very bad" and "not acceptable".
He said memos would be issued to all such officers who failed to perform their assigned tasks well.
"Issuing memos is a painful thing for me. It's like issuing a memo on my own performance, as your failure is my failure," he remarked.
At a videoconference with District Collectors on the public grievances programme ''Spandana'', the Chief Minister took the officials to task by reading out statistics on their performance, in particular reference to the periodic inspection of village and ward secretariats.
"The village and ward secretariats are our brainchild. If we don't own them, progress will deteriorate. Regular inspection is the only way to improve the secretariats' performance," the Chief Minister said.
He asked the officials how they would appreciate the people's problems if they did not conduct field inspections.
"We are humans first and officers next. We need to first have a humane perspective. If we overlook the poor man, we have failed in our duties," he said.
He reminded them that the Collectors were supposed to inspect two secretariats a week, while others like Joint Collectors, Municipal Commissioners and Sub-Collectors were required to inspect four each.
While 1,098 field-level inspections had to be done, only 733 happened, which is only 66.75 per cent, he said. Collectors did 106 per cent and Joint Collectors 107 per cent against the target, the Chief Minister said, adding that these officials have done well. But he pointed out that three other Joint Collectors handling revenue, welfare and housing accomplished only 78, 85 and 49 per cent of the target (inspections).
The municipal commissioners achieved 89 per cent of the target, but the Integrated Tribal Development Agency Project Officers (18 per cent) and Sub-Collectors (21 per cent) lagged way behind, the Chief Minister said.
"The performance of these officers is very bad. This is not acceptable. You will also get memos from the CMO. There is no other option to ensure discipline," he said.
The Chief Minister told the Collectors to ensure that only eligible persons derived the benefit of welfare schemes.