VIJAYAWADA: HRD Minister Nara Lokesh said every household in Mangalagiri would be provided drinking water, underground gas and underground drainage connections before the 2029 Assembly elections.
Addressing the people after distribution the third phase of the ‘Mana Illu-Mana Lokesh’ (house pattas) programme at Kunchanapalli in Tadepalli mandal of Mangalagiri constituency, where he distributed permanent house-site pattas and PMAY sanction letters to 372 beneficiaries, Lokesh said a 100-bed hospital in Mangalagiri, a long-pending demand of residents, would be completed and dedicated to the public within the first three months of next year.
He also promised permanent solutions to drinking water and underground drainage problems and said roads would be laid immediately after completion of underground utility works.
On the house-site pattas, he said the government had distributed 3,002 pattas in the first phase, 2,670 in the second and 388 in the third phase. Together, these beneficiaries had received permanent rights over assets worth Rs 2,000 crore, he said.
Lokesh said the initiative launched in Mangalagiri had become a model for the State. The government had recently distributed 29,000 pattas in Visakhapatnam and would soon provide another 24,000 in Vijayawada, he said. Recalling his defeat in the 2019 Assembly election by 5,300 votes, Lokesh said he returned to Mangalagiri after working for five years and won the 2024 election with a 92,000-vote majority. “The majority you gave me has increased my responsibility,” he said.
He said Nidamarru government school had been developed as a model institution and claimed that demand for seats in government schools had begun to emerge in Mangalagiri. The government was working to replicate the model across the State, he said.
Lokesh also listed development works including the expansion of the Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple, construction of parks, community halls and roads, reopening of Anna canteens, installation of drinking water plants and development of religious and cremation facilities.
Appealing to voters to support coalition candidates in the forthcoming local body elections, he said he did not make many promises but would fulfil those he made.