Removal of fallen trees became a hard

• Payment under central government scheme MGNREGS

Srikakulam:Post titli cyclone blues are continuously hunting farmers in sea coast mandals in Srikakulam district. Removal of fallen and uprooted coconut, mango, cashew and other trees became hard in the affected areas. State government is decided to provide Rs 240 for each coconut, Rs 300 for mango, cashew and Rs 180 for other trees to farmers under the central government sponsored Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). In the district district water resources management agency (DWMA) is the nodel agency for implementation of MGNREGS. DWMA staff is calculating fallen and uprooted trees in all affected areas and later apply Geo tagging for it.

Affected farmer need to engage labour for removal of trees in his field and basing on number of trees government will pay amount to farmers directly under the MGNREGS. As per enumeration of officials total 10 lakh all kinds of trees were uprooted in all 12 mandals due to Titli cyclone. For removal of trees from the farm field it should be severed by cutting machines and total 385 power cutting machines supplied to farmers and DWMA, fire and NDRF staff are supervising the actitivity.

‘For cutting, removal of trees with roots Rs 240 for each tree is not sufficient’ coconut farmers, Gondyala Ramamurthy of Bejjiputtuga and Yenni Dhanunjaya of Chandiputtuga villages in Kaviti mandal told The Hans India. ‘Removal of mango tree with roots is required more labour and Rs 300 not sufficient’ mango farmer, Savara Narayana Rao of Lotturu village in Palasa mandal explained. Cashew farmers, Seepana Venkata Ramana of Bhyripuram, Borra AppalaRaju of Bejjiputtuga opined the same that Rs 300 is not sufficient for removal of damaged cashew trees.

‘Removal of all fallen, damaged and uprooted trees required more time as it needs more work and we are going to get more power cutting machines’ said DWMA project director (PD), Hanumanthu Kurma