Irrigation key to Nagarkurnool development

​Nagarkurnool: District Collector E. Sridhar, in an exclusive interview to The Hans India, has stressed that the administration would focus initially on strengthening irrigation and agriculture sectors in the district. This would spur the growth of allied sectors like fisheries, food processing and animal husbandry.

What are your priorities for the newly carved Nagarkurnool district? What is your action plan for the overall development of the district?
Nagarkurnool is the largest district carved out of erstwhile Mahabubnagar. As it has been just only over two months since the district was formed, we are studying the status of each and every sector.

Soon after I took charge of the district, I found that the district is having severe shortage of water. Water is very important for the growth of agriculture and allied sectors.

In view of this, we have decided to give priority initially to two sectors: irrigation and agriculture. Once these two sectors are developed, then automatically the other allied sectors will also pick up.

Our action plan for the next two years is to focus on completion of the two ongoing major irrigation projects: Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Project and Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation Scheme.

As these two projects are envisaged to meet both irrigation and drinking water requirements of the district, we are moving ahead to complete them at the earliest and simultaneously enhancing our efforts to improve the agriculture sector in the district.

What is the status of lift irrigation projects? Has the district benefited from these projects?
The Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Project is in the final stages of completion. Using this lift irrigation project, we have filled up more than 200 tanks with irrigation water.

This will not only help improve the agriculture sector, but also enable the development of fisheries in a big way. Under the Bheema Lift Irrigation Project, more than 20,000 acres of land has come under irrigation.

If the MGKLI and the PRRLI Irrigation Project are completed in the next two years, I am sure Nagarkurnool will be far ahead in the growth of agriculture and allied sectors and definitely the district would become the grain bowl of Telangana.

What steps are you taking for the growth of allied sectors in the district?
Fisheries, horticulture and food processing are the three important allied sectors of agriculture. In fisheries, with all the tanks in the district filled with water, we are expecting an annual production of 5,000 tonnes of fish in the district.

In horticulture, mango plantation in the district is being taken up in over 20,000 hectares. The Kollapur mangoes have got a unique brand of its own kind, which is very much popular.

For improving the horticulture sector, we are regularly conducting awareness and training programmes for the benefit of farmers and constantly sharing necessary information relating to farm, water as well as pesticide and fertilizer management for these plantations.

For providing marketing facilities, we have tied-up with the APEDA and the Mango Research Center in Sanga Reddy.

We have also tied up with some of the export agencies for the export of mango produce from the district.

How do you view the development of health, education, industry and tourism sectors in the district?
As I said, once the agriculture sector is developed, it will automatically give space for the food processing industry to flourish.

I am sure in the next one or two years a lot of food processing industries will be set up here. Similarly for improving marketing, we are also thinking of building more cold storages.

Health-wise, we are taking all steps to improve institutional deliveries. Although we have challenges of shortage of doctors and specialists, we are evolving a system of interchanging and shifting these health workers from one hospital to the other depending on the demand and their need.

Recently we launched E-Aushadi for online updating of details of patients, medical stocks and disease profile of the patients.

Based on this, we can assess the performance of each hospital on a real-time basis. And, I am optimistic that in the coming days, the healthcare sector will improve a lot.

Education-wise, we are focusing on improving the quality of education at the primary level. Particularly, the district administration is giving priority to improve facilities in hostels.

Nagarkurnool is blessed with a long stretch of forest areas, spanning across 2.55 lakh hectares. We want to take advantage of these natural resources.

To improve tourism, we are planning eco-tourism and have plans to further develop the river stretches of Somashila, the forts and temples.

Tell us about the road infrastructure in the district?
Lack of proper road infrastructure in the rural areas is a big challenge in the way of development. At least 50 percent of habitations are not having all-weather roads. We are giving priority to develop both Panchayat Raj and R and B roads in the district.

Give us a brief on implementation of welfare schemes?
To complete the Mission Bhageeratha scheme, we have put a deadline of December 2017. By this time, we are planning to supply water to every village point.

In the next phase, each household will get pure drinking water. Coming to double-bed room construction, about 2000 houses have been sanctioned for the district.

In the first phase, we are planning to construct 400 houses, for which the tenders would be called in the next one month’s period.

Out of 8.5 lakh population in the district, we have more than 11 lakh bank accounts. This is a very good aspect for us to implement the pension scheme without any problems.

Similarly, to overcome the demonetization problems, we are promoting the use digital transactions.