Former Chief Secretary Ajeya Kallam will take the lead in mobilising the people of Prakasam district for a sustained campaign to include one of the most backward districts in the list of the seven districts under the State Reorganisation Act for special central assistance for speedier development.
Informing this, Jana Chaitanya Vedika State president V.Lakshman Reddy told reporters here on Monday that an action plan would be chalked out at a meeting here on May 29 to build a people’s movement to impress upon the Centre and the State governments to pay special attention to the district to shed the backwardness tag.
None of the 11 educational institutions sanctioned by the Centre had been located in the district, which lacked a single State university to this day. Buildings for the sanctioned Abdul Kalam IIIT had not been finalised yet, he said, adding the promised university of mines and minerals also remained a non-starter.
Unfulfilled promises
Promises like setting up of a public sector sea port at Ramayapatnam, Donakonda industrial city and the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone(NIMZ) remained only on paper, Prakasam District Development Forum president Ch.Ranga Rao lamented while calling for dispersed development with focus on backward districts.
People in over 700 of the more than 1,000 villages in the district were forced to consume water with high fluoride content as the Pula Subbaiah Veligonda project suffered time and cost overruns, pointed out Special Category Status Sadana Samiti district convenor and former Joint Collector Sk.Shamsheer Ahamad.
Only three lakh acres of the total 19.05 lakh acres in the drought-prone district had assured irrigation as 182 of the 355 lift irrigation schemes remained dysfunctional, he added.
