Hyderabad: State agriculture minister Tummala Nageshwara Rao on Tuesday wrote a letter seeking merger of five gram panchayats Yatapaka, Gundala, Purushothapatnam, Kannaigudem, Pichukula Gudu back in Bhadrachalam. It may be recalled that seven mandals were merged into AP at the time of the bifurcation of the state.Grieving over the suicide of farmer Jodedla Prabhakar hailing from Chinthakani Mandal in Proddutur village of Khammam district, the minister ordered officials to take action against those for failing to act on his complaint about damage to his crop land. The farmer had ended his life after taking a selfie blaming officials. The minister cited the lack of space even for a dumping yard forBhadrachalam. The five-gram panchayats had recently passed resolutions for inclusion in Telangana citing administrative difficulties faced by them.Bhadrachalam temple has been facing problems in administering the land which comes under its purview in Purushothapatnam village.The minister opened an Integrated Lab Complex in Rajendranagar constructed at a cost of Rs 7.90 crores. The centre can conduct 20,000 soil, 8,000 seed and 6,000 fertilizer tests.Holding a review meeting at the TGIRD (Telangana Institute of RuralDevelopment), the minister informed that Rs 50,000 crores to Rs 60,000 crores will be spent on farm loan waiver, rythu bharosa, crop insurance scheme, and rythu bima among others this year. “We are committed to these though it is a big burden on the exchequer. More schemes will be rolled out depending on financial flexibility and labs for soil testing have been opened already,” he said.He further ordered the settlement of 1,222 claims under the bima. The minister ordered proper enumeration of crops and on the plantation of oil palm, he expressed dismay at meeting only 26 percent of the targeted 2.30 lakh acres and blamed lack of proper coordination between departments.Drip irrigation equipment will be given to farmers on over 70,600 acres togive an impetus to horticulture and vegetable cultivation along with oil palm,he added.Those who participated in the meeting include local MLA Prakash Goud,agriculture secretary Raghunandan, and agriculture director Gopi among others.
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