Patriotic fervor marked the 73rd Republic Day celebrations in the four Rayalaseema districts of Chittoor, Kadapa, Anantapur, and Kurnool on Wednesday amidst cultural events held in compliance with the COVID etiquette.
In Chittoor, District Collector M. Hari Narayanan and Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) S. Senthil Kumar inspected the police parade and took guard of honour from the police personnel at the Police Training Centre.
In his address, the Collector said that top priority was being given to the fields of agriculture, horticulture, and dairy development in Chittoor. He said that the November rains had led to crop damage in 13,000 hectares, and that steps were initiated to bail out the farmers from. He said an action plan was grounded to enhance the milk production to 38 lakh liters per day by the next two years.
In Kurnool, Collector P. Koteswara Rao and SP Ch. Sudhir Kumar Reddy graced the Republic Day celebrations at the police parade grounds. The Collector said that the district was at the forefront by completing the target extending 540 kinds of services to 26.44 lakh beneficiaries through 1,118 gram and ward secretariats.
He said during the kharif, ₹9.56 crore worth of seeds were distributed to over 30,000 farmers. He added that the COVID task force personnel in Kurnool district had rendered commendable service in the last two years.
In Anantapur, Collector Nagalakshmi Selvarajan said that importance was given to the areas of agriculture and allied fields in the district. She said that the State government’s ambitious project of Nadu Nedu had posted tremendous results in the district, while focus was also laid on the Amruth scheme to provide safe drinking water to the people in the urban areas.
In Kadapa, Collector Vijayarama Raju initiated the Republic Day celebrations at the police parade grounds. In his address, the official said that the district received 324% of excess rains in November 2021. The flash floods had wreaked damage tocrops in 19,000 hectares, affecting 1.3 lakh farmers. He said that the State government had provided ₹5 lakh ex gratia to the victims of the Rajampeta floods. He said that all the 14 projects in the district had received full inflows. An amount of ₹604 crore was sanctioned to take up the scheme of diverting Krishna floodwaters into the Gandikota project.
