Help in store for tribals

​Rampa Chodavaram: The government’s objective is to enhance the purchasing power of each tribal family in the Agency area by providing them Rs 3,000 income every month and by giving them minimum 15 working days through job cards, East Godavari Collector H Arun Kumar said here on Thursday.

He conducted a review meeting with officials of Employment Guarantee Scheme, Panchayati Raj, tribal welfare, road and building department and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and reviewed average working days, ISLs, CC roads, land development and Anganwadi buildings.

Speaking on the occasion, the Collector said that two expert medical teams studied the health conditions of tribals in V R Puram mandal where pedal edema surfaced and added that medical teams clarified that the disease erupted due to lack of nutritious food. He directed the officials to take up steps to enhance the purchasing power by providing them at least 15 working days through job cards in order to get nutritious food. He put onus on the officials to rectify nutritious food problems in the Agency area.

Stating that the district is in second place in implementing Employment Guarantee Scheme, he suggested to the officials to take up necessary steps to bring the district in the first place. He also said that the district stood in the first place in horticulture cultivation. He observed that the Employment Guarantee Scheme is jewel in the crown among all the programmes with regard to the development of villages.

He directed the officials to take up steps to make the district open defecation free by 2018. He suggested to officials that they should make efforts to stop eucalyptus cultivation in the Agency area to preserve ground water. When the field-level staff said that the forest department was obstructing land development activities, the Collector assured them that he would take up the issue with the forest department.