Eluru: Civil Supplies Minister and Eluru District In-charge Nadendla Manohar announced that smart ration cards will be distributed to beneficiaries in the state from the 25th of this month.

He spoke to the media along with State Housing, Information and Public Relations Minister Kolusu Parthasarathy after the DRC meeting held at the Eluru Collectorate on Monday.

They said that they discussed in detail various issues and problems raised by the MLAs of the respective constituencies. Minister Nadendla Manohar said that 8,550 new ration cards have been issued in the district, adding that 6,18,864 families in the district will be provided with new smart cards. They have identified 17.43 lakh people as beneficiaries. The minister said that smart cards designed by the government in the size of an ATM card will be provided to them. The district review meeting discussed various issues, especially the farmers’ issue. Nadendla said that if the farmers have any issues under the Annadata Sukhibhava scheme introduced by the state government, they can apply online by the August 20th. He said that the government has given the farmers another opportunity to register, if they have not registered under the Annadata Sukhibhava scheme so far. He instructed the officials to create awareness among the farmers on this matter at the field level. He said that there is no shortage of urea and DPA anywhere in Eluru district. If there is a shortage, steps will be taken to correct it.

The minister made it clear that there is no room for compromise on issues that are useful to the farmers. Regarding the horticulture department, he said that efforts will be made to take the district from the current fifth position to the third position in terms of horticultural crops. He said that the problems of palm oil and cocoa farmers will also be resolved. MLA Chintamaneni Prabhakar made a good suggestion and assured that steps will be taken to establish a Coconut Board as suggested by him. He said that it has been decided to hold an in-depth review meeting with the Coconut Board officials soon to use new technology to help the farmers. He said that problems relating to irrigation water, house construction, streetlights, etc were discussed in depth in the meeting. He said that they discussed the steps to be taken so that people can use solar power under the Prime Minister’s Solar Scheme.

He said that MSME parks need to be created in the district. There are four MSME parks in the district, one of which has been completed. The remaining three are in the final stages. He has directed the officials to complete them by the next DRC meeting. He said that 3 lakh new connections have to be given across the state under the Deepam scheme. He said that only 10 connections are pending in Eluru district. He congratulated the officials for this. He said that the Stree Shakti free bus scheme has been introduced as part of Super Six promises. He said that it has received a good response. He said that 49 per cent of women have used this scheme as of Sunday evening. He said that so far 71,664 women have travelled free under the Stree Shakti scheme. He said that the authorities are ready to resolve the problems arising due to the Godavari floods.

MLAs Badeti Radhakrishnaiah (Chanti), Chintamaneni Prabhakar, Dr Kamineni Srinivas, Songa Roshan Kumar, Pathsamatla Dharmaraju, Chirri Balaraju, District Collector K Vetriselvi, Joint Collector P Dhatri Reddy participated in the DRC meeting.