Andhranews

Anantapur, Aug. 13: Mayor Parashuram on Sunday said that the Central government has agreed to provide financial assistance of Rs 65 crore for PABR drinking water scheme in the city. The PABR scheme is meant to supply drinking water for the residents of the city and would be taken up under the Urban Infrastructure Development of Small and Medium Town scheme. The mayor said that union urban development minister Jaipal Reddy and director R.K. Chaturvedi formally agreed to sanction funds for the scheme under UIDSMT.

Speaking to reporters at his chambers here, the mayor said that a team led by local MP Ananta Venkatrami Reddy submitted proposals for the drinking water scheme under UIDSMT scheme to union urban development minister Jaipal Reddy.

Proposals worth Rs 540 crores have come from all over the country under UIDSMT scheme and Anantapur topped the list with Rs 300 crores proposals, he said. Mr Parashuram said that the Centre has given priority to drinking water schemes and has formally agreed to sanction funds for PABR drinking water scheme in the city.

He said that 80 per cent grant is available under UIDSMT for the drinking water scheme while the remaining 20 per cent funds would be contributed by the State government and the corporation in equal share. He said that the corporation had withdrawn the earlier proposal to apply for Hudco loan for the project as it may prove to be a financial burden to the exchequer.

He said that the advise by legislator Narayana Reddy and the efforts made by the local MP Ananta Venkatrami Reddy in getting approval of funds for the project is phenomenal. Municipal commissioner K.V. Anjaneyulu, DEEs Brahmaji, Chandrasekhar and others were present.

Kurnool, Aug. 13: Works have been taken at a cost of Rs 193 crores for the construction of 77,238 houses for the poor living in rural areas under Indiramma scheme in the district, Kurnool district housing manager Vijay Kumar said. Speaking to reporters here on Sunday, Mr Vijay Kumar said that houses would be constructed for all eligible poor under selected villages.

So far works have been taken up for construction of 40,000 houses out of the sanctioned 77.238 houses, he said. He said that basement works were completed for 17,000 houses and ground level works were completed for 23,000 houses. Mr Vijay Kumar said the budget required for construction of the houses has been deposited in banks to ensure that bills are released without any delay depending upon the works completed. He said that steps are being taken to ensure that the beneficiaries open bank account with Rs 50 deposit against Rs 500 for the sanction of bills.

He said that 9,239 houses were sanctioned for persons living in municipalities in the district. Housing divisional engineer Bhaskar and others were present.

Warangal, Aug. 13: The J. Chokka Rao Godavari Lift Irrigation Scheme, known as Devadula project, is unlikely to give the irrigation water at least during the next kharif season. The project, which suffered losses to the tune of Rs 20 core in the recent rain and the consequent floods, was actually scheduled to irrigate a total of 50,000 acres during the present kharif season. But the slow pace of works and the controversies over the quality of works, and the advance payment and the consequent suspension of senior officials are all adding to the delay in the project’s failure to deliver on time.

The lack of supervision on the project milestones and the stalling of project works due to the floods in Godavari also contributed for the delay. There were three floods during the last three years and every time the intake well at the project site at Gangaram deep in the Eturnagaram forests has got submerged affecting the project works.

It is perplexing that the previous experience of getting their intake well submerged at Gangaram has not helped the project engineers to prevent the recurrence of similar mishap. But every time they are committing the same mistake and getting the machinery submerged resulting in the further delay of the project. The district farmers, who were eagerly waiting to get the Devadula water for irrigation and drinking water purposes, were getting dejected with the inordinate delay. It will take at least three months more to restore the submerged facilities and other lost machinery at the project site. In many areas, the pipeline works have also got damaged and have exposed the poor quality of works in laying the pipelines.

Karimnagar, Aug. 13: Male devotees will have to wear traditional pancha to enter Sri Rajarajeshwaraswamy temple at Vemulawada, popularly known as south Kasi. The temple trust board has decided to implement the dress code for devotees and employees. The temple employees will have to wear white dress. Temple board chairman Adi Srinivas told this newspaper that the modernisation plan aims to make the temple administration more effective, provide more security and better amenities to the pilgrims.

As per the plan, the board has approved a proposal to install closed circuit TVs and jammers and set up intercoms in the temple. Mr Srinivas said that the board members will go to temple towns like Shirdi, Tirupati and Mantrala-yam to study their administration to improve the amenities in Vemulawada. He said 400 new cottages would be constructed at Vemulawada at a cost of Rs 5.6 crores.

Vijayawada, Aug.13: The families taking shelter in the flood relief camps in various places of the city may have to remain there for the next three days as the flood water in the low-lying areas is yet to recede. By Sunday evening, the inflow at Prakasam Barrage was 4,50,000 cusecs but the water level is expected to rise above five lakh cusecs by Monday morning. More than 1,500 families are being provided shelter in the camps at Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium, bus-stand and schools and they are being provided food, drinking water, sanitation and medical facilities.

Meanwhile, the Krishna district authorities evacuated 80 families from Amudaalavalasa village of Challapalli mandal as flood water entered the houses. They have been shifted to relief camps in schools. “There is no dearth of arrangements in the flood relief camps. They are being provided good food, water and all other facilities. We told them not to return to their houses as their houses are still marooned," Krishna district joint collector S. Suresh Kumar told this correspondent.

Some families in the low-lying areas of Tarakarama Nagar, Krishnalanka and Tarakarama temple are not heeding the requests of the authorities to shift to relief camps. “Many of us are daily wage labourers and it is tough for us to make both ends meet even if we skip the job for a day. The floods have badly affected our liv-es and the help being ext-ended by the government is not sufficient,” said K. See-naiah, a resident of Bhupesh Gupta Nagar. The evacuated people are upset as they were not given any assurance about long-term plans neither by the people’s representatives or by officials to avoid the problem.

In his recent visit after floods, panchayat raj minister and district in-charge J.C. Diwakar Reddy assured the victims that the government would allocate 15,000 houses for the affected families in and around Vijay-awada. But this is not being taken seriously by the victims as they know that the city is yet to get the funds that were granted during last year’s floods.

“They were given Rs 2,500 besides 20 kgs of rice during last year’s floods as the VMC elections were due. This year the amount has been red-uced. The government sho-uld first study the requirements of the people and wo-rk on a concrete plan,” said CPM secretary Ch. Babu Rao.

Bhadrachalam (Khammam), Aug. 13: People in flood-affected areas are unable to get vegetables and essential commodities since most of the kirana shops were washed away in the waters.
Even kirana shops which survived the lashing floods are not being opened by merchants because of wat-erlogging. Many merchants are not able to reach the shops. Tribal people used to purchase provisions and ve-getables in the weekly local fairs. However, the floods have disrupted them too.

The usual practice was for merchants to purchase co-mmodities and vegetables from Rajahmundry and Bh-adrachalam and sell them through their kirana shops in tribal areas. "For the last several days, we haven't had any vegetables and are eating food with pickles," said Payamma, a housewife in Rud-ramkota of Velierpad mandal.

In the few shops that are open, merchants are reportedly charging exorbitant prices for vegetables. Though the district adm-inistration is supplying fo-od grain to the flood affected people, it is difficult for them to supply other essential commodities.

"I have rice but nothing else to go with it," said K. Rama Devi. "There is no place from which I can purchase vegetables," she added. S. K. Anif, a vegetable merchant of flood ravaged Chintoor town of Bhad-rachalam, said that it would take him at least two mo-nths to be back on his feet. "My shop collapsed and I suffered big losses," he said. He himself is relying on the ration being supplied by the government and has no access to vegetables.

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 13: The district administration heaved a sigh of relief after the reports that depression in the Bay of Bengal crossed the coast near Balasore, Orissa. Expecting heavy rains under the influence of the depression as reported by the Cyclone Warning Centre here on Saturday, the officials sounded high alert in the three north coastal districts — Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam — recovering from torrential rains and subsequent floods.

A helpline centre was set up at the district collectorate and control rooms were also established at all the 11 mandal headquarters and three revenue division headquarters. The higher officials have also asked the MROs to move to their headquarters to face any eventuality. The MROs were told to be ready for relief and rescue operations.

The people of the three districts were worried on Saturday fearing that the depression might turn into a cyclonic storm and create havoc. Gates of the Mehadrigedda reservoir were opened as the water levels increased. The Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation has focused on the possible inundation of the low-lying areas in the city and took precautionary measures like desiltation of major drains to arrest the inundation problem.

Three special officers were appointed to three districts and they were asked to constantly monitor the situation. Fishermen were told not to venture into the sea. The warning for the fishermen in coastal Andhra Pradesh continue till Monday as the state of the sea is likely to be rough and the winds will be mainly from westernly direction with a speed of 50 km per hour.

Visakhapatnam, Aug. 13: State AISF general secretary M. Vemaiah said here on Sunday that they would chalk out an action plan to launch stir against the recent State government’s decision to hike the fees of various engineering courses in the State at the 70th State-level convention of the Federation which is going to be organised between August 25 and 27 in Guntur.

Speaking to reporters, he alleged that the Congress, which promised free education in the State before elections was doing business with education after coming to power. “We will make the government rollback the fee hike decision. The State government is planning to close the State-run Intermediate colleges and planning to sanction private colleges in those places,” he said.

He said that the State government had failed in sending proper representations to the Union government for getting the pending SC welfare scholarships worth around Rs 250 crores and added that the State government also diverted the BC welfare scholarships funds to the tune of Rs 150 crores to other departments. Around 1,000 delegates will take part in the convention. AISF all India general secretary Vijayendra Kesari and CPI State secretary K. narayana will take part in the convention.