Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu always cries from the roof tops about the empty exchequer and financial crisis caused due to bifurcation of erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh State. But the same gentleman does not hesitate to spend extravagantly to garner publicity and trouble the people. It was evident from the way Naidu convened the so-called “crucial” meeting of his Cabinet colleagues and senior bureaucrats at Secretariat in Hyderabad. And believe it or not, the government had spent nearly Rs 20 lakh on travel expenses alone for them to attend a meeting which did not last even three and a half hours. It is a known fact that Naidu has been running his administration from his make-shift camp office at Vijayawada and he is hardly coming to Hyderabad these days. For strange reasons, he somehow called for a high-level meeting at Secretariat in Hyderabad. As a result, all the ministers, special chief secretaries, principal secretaries and Secretaries camping in Vijayawada were forced to come to Hyderabad.

Besides them, other heads of department working in different places of Andhra Pradesh were also asked to come to Hyderabad. Ironically, the agenda of the meeting was to fix revenue targets for the departments for the next financial year 2016-17 which could have been done at much later date! Most of the officials and ministers travelled by the air to reach Hyderabad spending huge amounts. And all of them were provided accommodation in star hotels spending lakhs of rupees. And Naidu himself had spent hefty amounts on his chartered flight and also helicopter. All of them were paid local conveyance expenses. Besides, huge amount was spent on the travel expenses of private secretaries and assistants of ministers and senior IAS officers. Ironically, Naidu has called for the Cabinet meeting at Vijaywada on Monday and all these ministers and officials and their staff were asked to come back to Vijayawada. This is additional expenditure. One wondered why Naidu did not think of hosting Cabinet meeting in Vijayawada, since all the cabinet colleagues are anyway in Hyderabad. But, that is Naidu!