Officials get a lashing from Collector

Eluru: District Collector K Bhaskar Rao expressed anger at the officials of agriculture, horticulture and other departments for their failure to apprise themselves of the latest innovative methods in farming and work effectively. He reviewed the progress of the priority sectors like agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries, at a meeting on Wednesday.

He found fault with the Agriculture department officials for having failed to assess the situation at mandal level as a result of which proper steps were not taken to provide irrigation water to kharif crops, adequately. He warned of disciplinary action against agriculture officials if they submitted incorrect information to him.

The agriculture officials are supposed to apprise me of the latest innovations in farming which can be passed on to the farmers, but I am having to get the information from other districts,” he said. He expressed his ire at the horticulture officials as well and said they were lacking in sincerity. “At Ponnuru in Guntur district, innovative methods were used for rearing honey bees.

The farmers there are producing more honey with lesser expenditure. I directed the officials to adopt the same methods here but they have not done anything although it is a week since I have given the instructions,” he said.

The Collector informed that 25,000 farming equipments have been distributed to farmers in the last two years. He said a comprehensive survey should be undertaken to determine whether the equipments reached the intended beneficiaries.

He directed officials to formulate an App with a geo-tagging system and paste the photograph of the farmer along with the equipment so that the facts would come out.

Stating that the government was spending crores of rupees for providing modern farming equipments to the farmers, he said it was important to ensure that the equipments did not land in the hands of mediators. Additional joint Collector MH Sheriff, Agriculture JD Y Sai Lakshmeswari and Horticulture assistant directors Durgesh and Vijaya Lakshmi and others were present.