Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday directed district Collectors to encourage joint families by ensuring that welfare benefits reach all eligible members. Addressing the second and concluding day of the Collectors’ Conference, Naidu expressed concern over joint families splitting into smaller units to access welfare schemes and called for policy changes to treat the family as the basic unit.

Naidu asked officials to consider distributing ration to all members of a family and complete family-unit mapping before issuing new social security pensions. He directed that existing pension beneficiaries should continue receiving their benefits without changes. The Chief Minister also called for a welfare calendar to remind people about benefit distribution dates and create greater awareness about the effective use of government schemes.

The Chief Minister said the state government had spent around Rs 1.50 lakh crore on welfare programmes so far, including Rs 75,000 crore on pensions. He said welfare policies should focus on reducing economic inequalities and improving people's quality of life, while placing greater emphasis on empowering families. Naidu also directed SERP and MEPMA to extensively implement the “One Family–One Entrepreneur” programme, under which the government is working to transform five lakh women into entrepreneurs.

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Naidu stressed the importance of quality education for students staying in hostels and directed Collectors to take the P4 programme forward as a people's movement rather than treating it as a routine administrative exercise. He said the first day of every month had been dedicated to welfare activities through the “Pedala Sevalo” programme, while “Mee Bhoomi–Mee Hakku” should be conducted on the ninth of every month to undertake comprehensive cleansing of land records.

The Chief Minister also assigned specific timelines to several public initiatives. He directed officials to prioritise sanitation through the “Swachh Andhra–Swarna Andhra” programme on the third Saturday of every month and implement the “Sanjeevani” digital health records initiative on the fourth Saturday for better health management. He also called for the message of positive thinking and the importance of building a values-based society to be taken to the people alongside these programmes.

Reviewing administrative performance, Naidu expressed displeasure over delays in clearing government files and directed that all file clearances should be completed online within one month. He praised officials who had disposed of files within two days or less and made regular field visits by secretaries and Collectors mandatory, saying direct feedback from people was necessary to improve performance. He also directed the Chief Secretary to seek explanations from heads of departments who were absent from the Collectors’ Conference.

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