GUNTUR: District collector Kanthilal Dande on Thursday announced that steps are on to convert the rehabilitation colonies constructed for the oustees of the Pulichinthala irrigation project into panchayats.
At a review meeting with officials on development of infrastructure facilities such as laying of roads, construction of houses and provision of electricity and drinking water to all the 12 rehabilitation colonies intended to provide shelter to the Pulichinthala project displaced families, here on Thursday, he asked the officials to complete the works in an expeditious manner and added that all the colonies will be developed on the lines of Panchayats.
Responding to Peddakurapadu MLA Kommalapati Sridhar’s appeal relating to issues like selection of beneficiaries for providing shelters in the rehabilitation colonies and also for providing drinking water and burial grounds in the colonies, the collector admitted that 166 applications are pending with regard to selection of beneficiaries and directed the joint collector Cherukuri Sridhar to resolve the same by holding ‘Grama Sabhas’ soon.
He asked Rural Water Supply (RWS) officials to supply drinking water to the colonies with tankers until the drinking water works are completed. While reviewing the construction of temples in the colonies, Dande directed the Pulichinthala project special collector I Venkateswara Reddy and endowment department officials to take a decision either to construct all temples in a single location or to construct temples in each colony after taking the views of the people of all the colonies into consideration.
Stating that lands have been allocated to 10 colonies for burial grounds, the collector said they will take steps for giving land to burial grounds in the remaining two colonies as there is no availability of government land.
Speaking on the occasion, joint collector Sridhar said that the Pulichinthala project is being constructed with a capacity to store 40 tmcft of water and maintained that infrastructure development works in all the rehabilitation colonies would be completed at the earliest.