Hyderabad: Highways to be repaired

Hyderabad: The Cabinet has decided to allocate Rs 571 crore to repair state highways that were damaged by the recent heavy rains, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said on Thursday.

Mr Rao was briefing mediapersons on the decisions of the Cabinet, which met at Pragathi Bhavan on Thursday.

Keeping in view the importance of the matter, the Cabinet summoned the chief engineers of the roads and buildings department and took stock of the situation. It decided to sanction funds and float tenders so that the damaged roads will be restored in two-and-a-half to three months, Mr Rao said.

The Chief Minister said that with regard to the national highways, the Cabinet had decided to write to the Union transport minister and meet him with an request to take up the repairs.

Mr Rao said that the Cabinet had decided to formulate a comprehensive policy to procure paddy from the farmers in future.

He said that as far as the procurement in the Kharif season was concerned, the state government had give a guarantee of `7,000 crore to the Civil Supplies Corpora-tion for the purpose.

The Cabinet had instructed the finance secretary to give a guarantee of an additional Rs 3,000 crore if required.

Mr. Rao said that the Cabinet had resolved to bring an Ordinance to appoint chairpersons to 28 government-owned corporations including the Rythu Samanvaya Samiti.