Friday, Apr 25, 2003
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Andhra Pradesh
By Our Staff Reporter
He said that the situation was worsening by the day in the villages of Anantapur and Mahabubnagar districts where scanty rainfall for years created barren landscape. Thousands of people were fleeing affected villages where the wells dried up and the Government was yet to realise the need for opening feeding centres. He said that the `bikshatana' taken up by the party in aid of the drought victims, had received an overwhelming response. People were responding positively. A woman in Hyderabad who initially donated Rs 100 for the purpose, came out with an offer subsequently for bearing the total expenditure on a gruel centre. He said NGO associations, insurance employees, teacher organisations and traders had come forward to run the gruel centres in different places. The `Citizens collective' had shouldered the responsibility in a few centres. An advocate also responded to the situation by running feeding centres under the aegis of `Sivoham'. He said all the political parties including the Congress should involve themselves in the effort in a big way. Some Congress leaders had already responded to the drought situation by supporting the feeding centers in their individual capacity. But party should respond as an organization with commitment to stand by the people when they were in need. He said that the government could not be blamed for the drought conditions prevailing in the state. But the government should take the blame for the failure of the relief measures. Though the Government had adequate resources at its disposal, it failed in planning to ensure proper distribution. The government seemed to have no proper understanding of the drought situation. He flayed the Telugu Desam Party for holding the mandal-level organisational polls at this juncture. When the people were looking to the administration and the elected representatives for drought relief, the Ministers and the MLAs were all involved in organisational polls. The timing of the TDP polls exposed its lack of sincerity towards the pressing problems of the people, he said. He said that out of 15 lakh tonnes of rice received so far by the State for the implementation of the Food-for-work programme, about 3.20 lakh tonnes could be utilised. About 12 lakh tonnes should be utilised in the next one and a half months. Going by the previous experiences, the intermediaries were all out to cash in on the utilisation of rice in the fag end of the season, he said. He said the official machinery could not be utilised properly in the implementation of drought relief. The distribution of the foodgrains basing on the population figures should be given up. The people in areas which were severely affected by drought should get more aid than those in the areas which were relatively better off. He said the labourers engaged in earth work were not uniformly paid. Those engaged in soft soils were getting more rice than the workers entrusted with earth work in hard soils. The workers should get uniform wage irrespective of the work since the programme was basically aimed at supporting poor in need of employment. Mr. Raghavulu said Rs 70,260 was collected in the day in Khammam. The party could collect Rs 29,000 in Kurnool and Rs 22,000 in Hyderabad. He would join the padayatra in Visakhapatnam on Friday and Warangal on April 27.
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