The State welcomed the new Telugu year Plava, expected to be smooth sailing for people in different walks of life, on Tuesday.
Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and several Ministers participated in the Ugadi celebrations and greeted the people on the occasion. Endowments Minister A. Indrakaran Reddy attended the Panchanga Sravanam by B. Santosh Kumar at the Endowments office this morning.
The Governor, who took part in the Ugadi celebrations, got the traditional Ugadi Pachadi prepared and served it to the guests. She took care to ensure preparation of other traditional dishes made of jaggery to treat the Raj Bhavan ‘pariwar’ and few guests.
She said Plava signified the year of knowledge and wisdom and hoped that the beginning of the Telugu new year would mark the beginning of the end of COVID-19 pandemic. She extended her wishes to the Telugu people across the globe. The Governor announced assistance of ₹8.66 lakh from her discretionary grants towards the nutritional intervention programme for the primitive tribal groups in the State.
She also extended financial aid of ₹50,000 to self-employed women from her discretionary grants towards the purchase of raw materials for handmade designs by women of Raj Bhavan pariwar. The Governor, moved by the plight of one attendant Bhavani who suffered paralytic stroke recently, extended financial assistance of ₹25,000 to her.
The Chief Minister conveyed Ugadi greetings to the people and said that as predicted in the Telugu almanac, more importance would be given to flow of water this year, and water for irrigation would be available in abundance.
Ugadi was known as the beginning of the agriculture year and an integral part of farmers’ lives as they would start their agricultural operations beginning with the new year. Referring to Ugadi Pachadi, he said people of Telangana who tasted bitterness under the united Andhra Pradesh were now enjoying the sweet fruits under the State’s self-rule.
The CM said that during the pandemic times, the State government came to the rescue of farmers and purchased the agriculture produce from them. Proving critics wrong, Telangana ranked first in the country in paddy yield and in terms of extent of land under cultivation. He recalled the spree of initiatives like free power and procurement of agriculture produce by the government launched for farmers and said the schemes instilled confidence among the farming community and brought new hopes for them.
