Health, education to be strengthened: A Surya Kumari

Vizianagaram: A Surya Kumari completes one year as District Collector. On Sunday, she explained her priorities and future plans for developing the district in an exclusive interview to The Hans India. When asked about priority areas for development of the district, she said in the beginning of my stint as a collector, I said education and health sectors are my priority areas.

For the last one year we are focusing on these two sectors by implementing several measures. The district has achieved good results in SSC examinations in KGBV Schools. SAKHI programme is designed for adolescent girls to create awareness on health and nutritional issues among them. Land acquisition for major projects like Bhogapuram Greenfield International Airport and Greenfield Highway No 130 Visakha-Raipur are the major achievements in the last one year. 600 hectares of land was acquired in the last one year for highway project.

The collector advised farmers to cultivate diversification from paddy to alternate crops like maize, sesame as third crop and pulses as second crop. She said, "we are planning to establish sesame oil extraction plants in Garividi and Nellimarla, where the crop is grown in large extent. A wholesale vegetable market will be set up at Modavalasa which is on the Highway in Denkada mandal."

Later, she said the district secures second position in the state for housing. Out of a total 83,295 sanctioned 66,643 houses are under construction in different stages. "We have also prepared four MIG layouts for middle income group at GN Valasa, Raghumanda and Gajapathinagaram, Gunnathotavalasa near Bobbili with each having 152 plots. Another layout of 22 acres is also proposed in G Ch Palli near Rajam," she added.