Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has directed the officials to take steps to extend financial assistance announced by the government to farmers whose crops were damaged due to untimely rains and hail storm.
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The Chief Minister held a review meeting on crop loss, podu lands, financial assistance to poor for housing and other issues with senior officials on Tuesday. The review follows Mr. Rao’s recent visit to the affected areas where he announced ₹10,000 an acre as compensation to farmers.
Accordingly, the Chief Minister directed the district collectors to conduct cluster-wise survey with local agricultural extension officers for collecting complete information relating to the damage and submit it to the government. Instructing Chief Secretary A. Shanti Kumari and Agriculture Secretary Raghunandan Rao to initiate immediate action into the issue, he clarified that funds should be directly deposited into the accounts of farmers who suffered losses because of untimely rains and hailstorms.
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Second phase of sheep distribution
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao directed the officials to start the second phase of sheep distribution programme. He wanted them to take steps to see that purchase of sheep was done under the direction of the district collectors and the entire process should be done as per the official procedure. He directed the officials to take steps to provide financial assistance of ₹3 lakh each to eligible poor enabling them to construct houses in the open plots owned by them. Officials should work out modalities and due process should be formulated in this direction.
Podu lands distribution
The Chief Minister wanted to know whether the officials were prepared to distribute podu lands to eligible tribals. Officials informed him that steps were taken to print and distribute passbooks to 1.55 lakh eligible persons covering four lakh acres. With the officials expressing their preparedness, the Chief Minister said the date from which the process would start would be announced soon.
₹1 crore for Sri Sitarama Kalyanam
The Chief Minister announced sanction of ₹1 crore from the Chief Minister’s special fund for conducting Sri Sitarama Kalyanam at Bhadrachalam on March 30. The decision follows the request made by the Endowments department citing the financial crunch being faced by the Devasthanam over the last two years due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to the Chief Secretary and Mr. Raghunandan Rao, Finance Special Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao, Revenue Secretary Naveen Mittal and other senior officials participated in the review meeting.