Lokesh ropes in 356 donors for village adoption scheme from Texas

Dallas, Texas, May 13: Telugu Desam Party leader and son of Andhra pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Nara Lokesh, who is on a 10-day visit to the United States, met President Barack Obama and a number of US and Indian American leaders. According to Lokesh, one of the goals of his visit to the US is to inspire members of the Telugu community in the US to adopt smart villages in AP. Among other leaders, Lokesh met Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets Arun Kumar and Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos. During his visit to Dallas, Texas Lokesh held several meetings with IT leaders including Vinod Khosla, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen and Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka. The TDP leader received warm receptions from local Telugu communities across the US. Lokesh is believed to have received commitments from Indian Americans to adopt over 2,000 smart villages in AP. During his visit to Dallas a huge car rally was organised by the NRI Telugu Desam Party community. Later, over 1,000 Indian Americans assembled for a meeting. During the meeting, Dr. Navaneeta Krishna Gorrepati, a past president of TANA and a Sr. Cardiologist in Dallas, said the AP government had made a huge contribution to the success of Indian Americans by spending big money for each individual’s education. Therefore, Dr. Gorrepati said it was their responsibility as well as an opportunity to give back to the AP by developing the village where they were born. KC Chekuri, Raghavendra Prasad and Lokesh Konidala, referring to the Smart Village Smart Ward programme, said for the first time a Telugu government was asking them not just money but was seeking their intelligence and experience in the development of the state. They said this was a good sign and encouraged everyone to come forward and take part in the initiative and make it a success. Sugan Jagarlamudi, who coordinated the village adoption programme among NRIs in the Dallas area, said they succeeded in roping in at least 356 donors for the programme. Presenting a detailed list of the donors, Sugan said Prakasam district topped the list with maximum number of village adoptions followed by Chitoor district. Later, Lokesh thanked the NRI community in Dallas area and appreciated their efforts in taking up promotion of the programme district wise. During a question and answer session, Lokesh said AP government is working on having a fibre optic connection to all villages by the end of the year. With internet connectivity in place, NRIs could interact with the village leaders and government officials using Skype. He also added that NRIs could appoint representatives to work and coordinate activities on their behalf. This entire process would be a recognized government activity performed under the office of the Collector and hence any issue could be brought to the notice of collector for help and resolution.