Like in any other part of Rayalaseema, several mandals of Gangadhara Nellore Assembly constituency face a severe problem of agricultural water. This is forcing people to migrate to other places.
The Krishnaraja Sagar project previously catered to the agricultural needs of the constituency but for the past three years, the project is not receiving any inflows from neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
All the schemes taken up by the district administration like water sheds and rural employment generation works are not providing any relief to the workers as all the projects are taken away by contractors who use machinery instead of manual labour.
With the lack of cultivation for a long peroid of time, fertile lands have turned into barren ones in many places.
On the other hand, mandals like Penumuru, GD Nellore and SR Puram have granite mines in abundance.
There is a scope to industrially develop the area but no efforts have been taken up by the government.
During the 2009 elections, then chief minister the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy promised to set up a leather park at a cost of `250 crore but the project has been restricted to files and never became a starter.
In SR Puram and Palasundaram mandals, farmers took up coconut plantations but with lack of proper renumerative prices, they shifted to mango cultivation.
Even this doesn’t seem to have paid off for them with unseasonal rains destroying majority of their crop every year.
The farmers have now switched to surgane in some parts but they complain og lack of minimum support price for their produce.
Sitting MLA:
Gummadi Kuthuhalamma
Party: Congress
Votes polled: 62,249
Margin of victory: 10,826
Runner-up: Gandhi
Party: TDP
Votes polled: 51,423
total electors: 1,63,206
Men: 80,569
Women: 82,637
Poll percentage: 83.64
Total votes polled: 1,36,442
No of contestants: 11
Men: 10
Women: 1
No of polling stations: 226
Avg per polling station: 720
