Telangana Cabinet announces Rs 1 lakh for people from traditional occupations, scraps GO No 111

GO No. 111 was issued in 1996 to prevent undue industrialisation and heavy construction activities in 83 villages and pollution of Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar

Hyderabad: The State Cabinet, which had its maiden meeting in the Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat with Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in the chair on Thursday, has decided to ensure inclusive growth of communities depending on the traditional occupations by extending substantial financial assistance. The Cabinet also announced the scrapping of GO No. 111, which was issued in 1996 to prevent undue industrialisation and heavy construction activities in 84 villages and pollution of Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar.

As for the assistance for people from traditional occupations, a major segment of the population especially people from communities such as Vishwa Brahmin, Nayibrahmin, Rajaka, Medari would be reached out with a special assistance of Rs 1 lakh per beneficiary that would disbursed during the 21 day-celebrations being organized marking the State Formation Day.

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A cabinet subcommittee headed by BC Welfare Minister Gangula Kamalakar was constituted to identify communities that merit consideration for the assistance and work out modalities for selection of beneficiaries and disbursement of assistance. Ministers T Srinivas Yadav, Srinivas Goud, V Prashant Reddy and G Jagadish Reddy will be members of the subcommittee, which would examine if any other communities were to be included for the assistance.

The Cabinet also decided to strengthen primary health services in the State. Just as Revenue services were strengthened by reorganizing the State into 33 districts, medical and health services would also be reorganized by appointing 33 District Medical and Health Officers ( (DMHO) in place of the existing 10.

Hyderabad being a large district with a population nearing one crore needed more DMHOs instead of the existing one. More DMHOs would soon be appointed and their operational area would be coterminous with the six zones of the GHMC. With this, the total number of the DMHOs in the State would go up to 38. About 40 revenue mandals that were formed newly were also sanctioned new primary health centres.

Permanent staff for UHCs

All urban primary health centres, which currently contract staff, would have permanent staff appointed soon.

Cabinet subcommittee on agriculture

A Cabinet subcommittee on agriculture was constituted with the Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy as the chief. Ministers Gangula Kamalakar, Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Puvvada Ajay Kumar, C Malla Reddy and A Indrakaran Reddy would be its members. The committee will study crop patterns and recommend measures that enhance yield and avoid crop losses.

The need for advancing the Yasangi crop season by one month time was felt. The crop harvest by the end of March in the season every year would help avoid massive crop losses, the Cabinet felt, with the sub-committee to work on advancing the Vanakalam and Yasangi crop seasons to save farmers from recurring crop losses.

Anti-spurious seed drive

With Telangana emerging as the number one producer of paddy in the country, a special drive would be launched to address the menace of substandard seed sale, with stringent measures to be taken against those indulging selling spurious seeds. The Vigilance department as well as joint teams involving the police and officials from the Revenue and Agriculture department would be deployed as part of the drive. The Chief Secretary and Director General of Police would coordinate with the districts on this.

The Cabinet also decided to facilitate procurement of maize and jowar from farmers. The Civil Supplies department was given permission to start purchases. The government would also extend guarantees to mobilize funds from banks for purchasing stocks with farmers.

The Cabinet also accorded sanction for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Umamaheswara Lift Irrigation scheme in Nagarkurnool district. It also decided to regularise services of VRAs in the State. As desired by the Chief Minister, senior official Naveen Mittal was directed to shoulder the task and speed up the process. The second phase of the Sheep Distribution scheme would be taken up soon.