State unriddles market yard issue

Khammam: Finally, it’s curtains for the long-pending tussle between those lobbied for and against shifting of Khammam Agriculture Market Yard with the State government finding a solution what it may be termed as a win-win for all.

For the last few, the shifting of Khammam market yard, the second largest chilli market yard in Telangana with a turnover of Rs 1,450 crore per annum, has become a moot point for the politicos and to those having vested interests. The split opinion among the major political parties and equally dissonant voices within the ruling TRS party has made the situation worse.

With the existing facility located in the III Town area of Khammam became congested and unable to accommodate the ever-increasing arrivals of commodities, the proposal to shift the yard to some other place came to fore some seven years ago. With the government land available in Gurralapadu under Khammam rural mandal and as well as in Jinkala Tanda under Raghunathapalem mandal, it became a debate where to shift the market.

In the past, the then Congress government issued a GO to shift the market to Jinkala Tanda land at Gurralapadu village is just three km away from the existing market. However, it was put on hold due to massive opposition from the stakeholders.

When the shifting issue came to fore again in last few months, a section of the ruling party leaders wanted Gurralapadu while the others lobbied for Jinkala Tanda. It’s said that the issue became more contentious with Jinkala Tanda coming under Khammam constituency and Gurralapadu coming under Palair constituencies, represented by Puvvada Ajay Kumar and Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao.

Barring CPI, the other Opposition Parties Congress, TDP, YSRCP and CPI-ML New Democracy opposed the shifting of market yard citing that the issue is associated with the livelihood of thousands of people spread across III Town area.