Officials set aside bouquets, buy blankets for Vamsadhara oustees

SRIKAKULAM: A few days ago, collector K Dhananjaya Reddy urged the district officials not to present floral bouquets, sweets or other goodies to convey the New Year wish in government offices, rather donate the same money to help out the Vamsadhara oustees. The novel move brought smiles to the evictees who are now living in the R&R colonies as the district administration could raise `12.5 lakh from the donations by the officials and distributed around 5,000 blankets to the oustees on the eve of the New Year.

Keeping in view the plight of the oustees who are now living in 13 R&R colonies where all the basic amenities are yet to be in place. Though the district administration is leaving no stone unturned to have the amenities in place, the works are yet to be completed.

Collector Dhananjaya Reddy and district officials distributed the blankets to the residents of R&R colonies in Metturu and Kottoru mandals on Sunday. As many as 6,672 families were evicted from 19 villages in LN Peta, Kotturu and Hiramandalam mandal, for making way for the speedy completion of the Vamsadhara project which would provide irrigation to 2.55 lakh acres.   

Mentioning that the plan of purchasing blankets for the oustees from the donations is a brainchild of joint collector KVN Chakradhar Babu, the collector said,”Apart from the help being extended by the government to the evictees, this novel move is an inspiration for all to extend a helping hand to the needy. We are with the evacuees. Rather wasting money on floral bouquets to convey the New Year wish to the higher-ups, we have planned to utilise the same amount for the welfare of Vamsadhara oustees.”

After distributing the blanket, the collector promised the oustees that he and the joint collector would visit all the 13 R&R colonies at least twice a month to sort out the problems related to poor amenities.

Projects to be readied this year
Vamsadhara reservoir project- March 2018
Modernisation of Thotapalli, Vamsadhara reservoirs and Narayanapuram ayacut - June 2018
Offshore irrigation project at Regulapadu - June 2018
On the cards
Neredi barrage (J550 crore)
High-level canal (J1,100 crore) of Nagavali and Vamsadhara (J85 crore)