Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy announced the sanction of Rs.1 crore for construction of a water tank, Rs.50 lakh for construction of a building for the Government College and upgrade of the government hospital from 30 to 50-bed at Chodavaram and sanction of Rs.114 crore for construction of flood banks on the Sarada, Varaha and Thandava rivers.
The Chief Minister was here to participate in the third phase of Rachabanda at the Government High School ground here on Friday.
Sops announced
Addressing the huge gathering, he announced some sops the district in general and Chodavaram constituency in particular in response to the plea made by MLA KSN Raju, who belongs to the Telugu Desam Party. Mr. Reddy said that Chodavaram has been facing a strange situation, which was coming in the way of implementation of development programmes.
“The candidate who wins the MLA contest from your constituency (Chodavaram), and the party which forms the government in the state have been different for the last 15 years,” he said and expressed the view that politics should not come in the way of development.
He said that both the ruling party and the Opposition should work for the welfare of the people. He hoped that the construction of flood banks would provide a permanent solution to the problem of flooding, whenever there were heavy rains.
Mr. Reddy also announced immediate release of Rs.35 crore to the Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) for its development on the lines of NIMS, on the plea made by Minister for Infrastructure and Investments Ganta Srinivasa Rao. He said that the Rachabanda programme was started with the objective of providing basic needs like ration cards and pensions to the poor and to bring the administration and the government closer to the people.
‘Bangaru Thalli’
The Chief Minister said that the Bangaru Thalli programme was launched to end discrimination against the girl child and to drive home the fact that a girl child was ‘not a burden’ but our ‘Lakshmi’.
Welfare schemes
Money would be credited in the name of the child till her Degree examination to meet the cost of her expenses on education and medicines.
He spoke about the welfare schemes launched during his tenure as Chief Minister for the past nearly three years like the SC/ST Sub Plan, which was made into an Act for the first time in the country and scholarships to students.
Minister for Infrastructure and Investments Ganta Srinivasa Rao and District Congress Committee president Karanam Dharmasri, MLAs Kanna Babu (Elamanachili), Panchakarla Ramesh Babu (Pendurthy), Muttemsetti Srinivasa Rao (Bheemunipatnam), Chintalapudi Srinivas Rao (Gajuwaka) and Bolem Mutyala Papa (Narsipatnam) were among those who were on the dais.