Elections to be held for water users’ associations soon

Eluru: Minister for Irrigation Nimmala Ramanaidu said that in view of the demand from the farmers, elections to the water users’ associations will be held in the coming days and the responsibility of the maintenance of canals will be handed over to them.He was participating in the general body meeting of combined West Godavari district Praja Parishad held at ZP meeting hall here on Friday. The meeting, held for the first time after the formation of the NDA government, was attended by new legislators, ZPTC members, MPPs and the district officials of various departments.

Minister Ramanaidu thanked the people on behalf of the ZP for giving a great victory to the alliance in 15 constituencies in the erstwhile West Godavari district. He said that if Bapuji’s dream of Swarajya is to be realised, it is possible only with a coalition government.

He quoted Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu as saying the meetings of the ZP should be aimed at solving public problems. He said that in the last 5 years, ZP meetings only witnessed adjournments and no steps were taken to solve the problems.

He said that ZP meetings are a platform for public representatives. He said that the Chief Minister has a special fondness for Godavari districts. He said that West Godavari means agriculture and it is the granary of Andhra Pradesh. The main objective of the government is to protect agriculture and farmers. Compared to the past, major water reservoirs in the State are full at this time, he said.

The Minister said that the current government was facing problems due to the mistakes committed by the previous YSRCP government. Though there is water in the reservoirs, there is a situation where water cannot be given without removing silt from the canals.

The previous government had to pay Rs 1,600 crore crop arrears to farmers. The NDA government after coming to power in the State, had cleared the arrears. Due to the neglect of the previous government, the works of Polavaram were halted. Following Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s efforts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sanctioned Rs 12,157 crore for Polavaram project.

He said that the Chintalapudi lift scheme in the district has been derailed for the last 5 years and the State government is giving priority to complete the first stage in order to help the farmers. He said that when the Godavari flood occurred recently, all the Ministers themselves visited the villages of Polavaram evacuees and provided assistance of Rs 3,000 to each family and other facilities.

Tourism and Culture Minister Kandula Durgesh said that by reaching out to the people, better governance will be provided with the aim of solving people’s problems.

Zilla Parishad chairperson Ghanta Padmasree, who presided over the meeting, thanked the government for releasing the 15th Finance Commission funds to Gram, Mandal and Zilla Parishads for the strengthening of local institutions.

Tanuku legislator Aramilli Radhakrishna, Chintalapudi MLA Songa Roshan Kumar and MLA of Dendulur Chintamaneni Prabhakar also spoke.

Issues related to education, medical, irrigation, roads, buildings, agriculture, RWS and other departments were reviewed.

Eluru District Collector K Vetri Selvi, MLAs Badeti Radhakrishnaiah (Chanti), Muppidi Venkateswara Rao, Dharmaraju Patsamatla, Chirri Balaraju, Maddipati Venkataraju, West Godavari District Joint Collector T Rahul Kumar Reddy, DFO Raveendra Dhama, ZP CEO K Subbarao and others were present.