The State government has started construction of rythu vedikas, buildings that serve as platforms enabling meetings of farmers, in all the 2,638 clusters identified across the State.
Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy told the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday that each vedika was estimated to cost ₹12 lakh taking the total cost of the buildings to ₹300 crore. The buildings were being designed in such a manner that they would enable meetings of farmers with strength up to 300 besides serving as offices for agriculture extension officers and housing mini soil test labs.
Land required for 2,050 such structures had been identified so far and process was underway for acquiring land for the remaining buildings. Works on the construction of the buildings would commence once the land was acquired.
Members suggested that the government enhance the unit cost from ₹12 lakh to ₹25 lakh so that all the required facilities could be provided in these buildings.
National highways
Roads and Buildings Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao informed the members that the Central government had notified 1,333 km of roads as national highways and it had given in principle approval for declaring 13 roads spanning a length of 1,767 km as national highways.
A total of 147.71 hectares had been acquired so far paving the way for the development of the roads and the government had decided to accord top priority to land acquisition for the proposed highways subject to the sanction of works by the Centre. The State government had decided to invoke the provisions under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Telangana amendment) Act. The provisions would enable completion of land acquisition process from six to nine months unlike acquisition through NH Act, 1956 which would take more than a year.
BJP member G. Kishan Reddy expressed concern that the inordinate delays in completing the land acquisition process was resulting in delays in taking up works on expansion of national highways in the State. He said the government had announced intentions to acquire 1,047 hectares during the current year, but no steps had been initiated so far while it was proposed to acquire 1,605 hectares during the next financial year.
