KURNOOL: Responding to a story on migrations published on Monday, District Collector P Koteswara Rao on Tuesday constituted a special team of officials to look into the matter. Speaking to TNIE, the Collector said, “We wanted to formulate a comprehensive action plan to prevent migration of agricultural labourers, small and landless farmers from drought affected villages of Adoni and Kurnool revenue divisions on a permanent basis.” The special team is headed by District Water Management Agency (DWMA) Project Director Amarnath Reddy. Officials of the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), irrigation, Panchayat Raj, labour and animal husbandry departments are its members.
The Collector, along with Joint Collector (Development) Manazir Jeelani Samoon, held a meeting with the special team to discuss the drought situation in the district and remedial measures to be taken. The action plan evolved by the special team to check migrations from Kurnool will be sent to the State government seeking approval for its implementation, he said.
According to an estimate, 10,000 families of farm workers from Kosigi, Mantralayam, Nandavaram, Kowthalam, Aspari, Devanakonda, Alur, Peddakadubur, Pathikonda, Chippagiri, Halaharvi, Belagal, Kodumur and Gonegandla mandals have migrated to other places in search of livelihood.The Collector directed the officials to increase the mandays under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the drought affected mandals to provide employment to agricultural labourers and landless farmers.
Skill development programmes should be taken up as a permanent remedial measure. People should be encouraged to take up dairy farming, poultry and other alternative sources of livelihood, the Collector said.
The Joint Collector directed the mandal officials to visit all the drought-hit villages in Adoni and Kurnool revenue divisions and collect data pertaining to the number of people migrated to cities in search of livelihood, which helps evolve a comprehensive plan to solve the problem on a permanent basis.