The State government has approved to spend ₹26 crore to improve road network in the Agency area in East Godavari district.
While ₹12 crore will be spent from the MGNREGA, the remaining ₹14 crore will be spent from the ST Sub-Plan to improve road connectivity between tribal villages and hamlets.
Announcing this during the general body meeting of the Zilla Parisahd here on Wednesday, Home Minister N. Chinarajappa said efforts were on to recruit medical officers to fill up the long-pending vacancies in the primary health centres located in the Agency area and the process would be completed very soon.
Two-minute silence
The meeting observed a two-minute silence to the 16 tribals of Chaparai who lost their lives due to illness and discussed at length the problems in the tribal villages and hamlets.
Expressing concern over the frequent deaths of tribals due to ill-health and malnutrition, ZPTC member from the YSR Congress Party Saka Prasanna Kumar faulted the government for failing to take steps for rescuing the innocent tribals.
‘No sincerity’
“The administration lacks sincerity. Most of the posts in the Agency area remained vacant and the insufficient staff is unable to render duties as in-charges,” he said, wondering why no steps were being taken to permanently address the problems.
Issues of swollen leg problem among the tribals of merged mandals, malnutrition among the tribal neonatal mothers and frequent dropouts from the schools in the Agency area came for a detailed discussion.
Responding to the discussion, Mr. Chinarajappa said there was no dearth of funds to undertake development programmes in the Agency areas.
He attributed the 16 deaths to the consumption of contaminated water from the local stream, but not that of the borewells. He said still the government swung into action and took necessary steps on a war-footing to bring back normalcy.
The meeting congratulated ZP chairman Namana Rambabu on his completion of three years in the office. MPs Tota Narasimham and Pandula Ravindra Babu, deputy chairman of the Legislative Council Reddi Subrahmanyam, Joint Collector J. Radhakrishna Murthy and others were present.
