Eluru district in-charge minister and state civil supplies minister Nadendla Manohar has issued clear instructions to the officials to look into the problems faced by the people of Kolleru area in a humane way and not within the framework of rules. Humanity is more important than rules. The government’s focus on these issues comes in the wake of the district MLAs expressing deep dissatisfaction over the attitude of the forest department officials in providing basic amenities like drinking water and roads to the people of Kolleru.
Minister Nadendla Manohar in his chamber in the Secretariat on Saturday. State Housing Minister Kolusu Parthasarathy held a high-level review meeting with several MLAs from Eluru district. During the meeting, the MLAs apprised the Chief Minister of their problems. They alleged that the Forest Department officials were obstructing development works in the villages under Kolleru sanctuary in the name of rules and not even attending district-level review meetings.
Kaikaluru MLA Kamineni Srinivas said that people in Lanka villages were reeling under acute drinking water shortage and roads were in bad shape. While Denduluru MLA Chintamaneni Prabhakar sought permission for repair of Mondikodu road, Unguturu MLA Patasamatla Dharmaraju sought repair of 64 notified drains.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister Kolusu Parthasarathy said that there is a boundary dispute between the revenue and forest lands in Nuzvid constituency and suggested that a joint inspection should be conducted immediately and the boundaries should be fixed. He requested the forest department to grant pattas to the ROFR lands and allow them to set up borewells for irrigation. Polavaram MLA Chirri Balaraju and MLA Badeti Radhakrishnaiah urged the officials to expedite the establishment of a city forest in Eluru to amicably solve the problems of Polavaram oustees.
Responding to the issues raised by the MLAs, Minister Nadendla Manohar said that the officials should not fail to understand the problems of the people. He directed the officials of forest, revenue and irrigation departments to work in coordination and solve the problems at the field level. Another high-level meeting will be held soon on these issues and the top officials have been directed to attend that meeting with complete solution reports. MLAs Maddipati Venkataraju, Songa Roshan Kumar and other forest department officials participated in the meeting.
