East Godavari Collector H. Arun Kumar said on Thursday that the objective of the government was to enhance the purchasing power of each tribal family in the Agency area by providing them with Rs 3,000 income every month by giving them at least 15 working days through job cards.
He observed that the employment guarantee scheme was a jewel in the crown among all the programmes with regard to the development of villages by lending a hand to the poor during natural calamities and drought. Stating that the district was in the second place in implementing the employment guarantee scheme, he suggested to the officials to take necessary steps to bring the district into the first place.
He reviewed with officials the employment guarantee scheme, panchayati raj, tribal welfare, R&B department and ICDS average working days, ISLs, CC roads, land development and anganwadi buildings.
Lack of nutritious food
Mr. Arun Kumar said at the meeting that two expert medical teams had studied the health condition of tribals in V.R Puram mandal where pedal edema (swelling of legs and/or hands) surfaced and added that the teams made it clear that the diseases had erupted due to lack of nutritious food.
He directed the officials to take integrated steps to enhance the purchasing power by providing them with at least 15 working days through job cards to enable them get nutritious food.
He put the onus on the officials for rectifying the nutritious food problems in the Agency area. He also mentioned that the district had stood first in horticulture cultivation. He directed officials to take steps to make the district open defecation free by the year 2018.
He suggested that everyone should make efforts to eliminate the cultivation of eucalyptus in the Agency area to preserve ground water and soil health. When the field level staff told the Collector that the Forest Department was obstructing land development activities though ROFR pattas had been sanctioned, he assured them that he would take up the issue with the Forest Department.
He said he would review these issues in November and warned that he would suspend the officials from duties if their performance had not improved. He suggested the officials to take up pre-fabricated buildings for anganadi centres.
Project Officer, ITDA, K.V.N Chakradhar Babu; Sub-Collector Ravi Pattan Setty; and PD, Dwama A. Nageswara Rao were present on the occasion.
