DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is not known to be technology or gadget savvy. But Apple's iPhone has become a rather indispensable tool in his hands these days. The iPhone, of course, is not owned by the Chief Minister. His enterprising and tech-savvy Chief Security Officer Masthipuram Ramesh uses the iPhone and it is coming in handy for RajasekharaReddy to dispose of applications related to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund (CMRF) -- just by using his fingertip. Even if he is touring a remote part of the far-off Srikakulam district or Adilabad or relaxing in his ownbackyard in Idupulapaya, Rajasekhara Reddy never misses the opportunity to clear pending CMRF applications. On an average, about 300 applications are received everyday by the ChiefMinister's Office (CMO) for financial assistance from the CMRF. Not a single application is kept pending as a team in the CMO, led by the Chief Minister's principal secretary P Subrahmanyam and private secretary Kiran Kumar Reddy, processes the applications in quick time and uploads them on the CMRF website. Hitherto, the Chief Minister needed to sit in front of his desktop computer to clear these applications. As he was constantly touring the state as well as other parts of the country, the CMRF applications used to get stuck. "This was creating troubles for the needy people as sometimes they were forced to wait for days to get the Chief Minister's approval for help. In critical cases, this wait could prove costly. So, we decided to integrate the website with the latest mobile handsets so that the applications could be processed in real time," a CMO official said. Initially, the CMO officials tried using the Blackberry device to download the CMRF site and process the applications. "Somehow, it did not work as desired," the CMO official pointed out. Then came Apple's iPhone, which is a virtual palm-top computer. It is fully loaded with a variety of features and browsing the web is amazingly easier. So, a foolproof system has been designed so that only the ChiefMinister, apart from his private secretary, can access the processing and approval part of the CMRF website. The specific page has details about the various applications received, the need for financial assistance and the amount to be sanctioned. A gist of the total number of applications, the sum sanctioned and the amount per person is also listed. During his "reserve" time while on tours, Rajasekhara Reddy opens the iPhone and completes the"formalities." In a flash, the main server in the CMO updates the details as soon as the Chief Minister grants his approval and sends back a message: "Thank you, dear Chief Minister." Rajasekhara Reddy indeed proves that one need not be tech-savvy to make effective use of technology.
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