Vijayawada: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has strongly come out against ration rice smuggling and instructed officials to initiate effective steps to check movement of smuggled rice from within and outside the state.
Speaking at the collectors' conference on Wednesday, the chief minister said PD Act should be invoked against PDS rice smuggling.
Regular rice and PDS rice are being sold together. PDS rice is also coming from Jharkhand. Illegal activities should not take place in AP. PDS rice mafia should be eliminated.”
Naidu also advised the collectors to focus on water recharge. All collectors should take up water-related work in NREGA works. District collectors must give high priority to water resource conservation measures in the districts, he said.
Responding to a presentation given by the water resources department, Naidu said “Unfortunately, in the last five years, dams, canal maintenance and gate repairs have been completely abandoned. There are dire situations where even contractors have not come forward to reinstall the project gates that were washed away.”
“However, this time, we have used water resources effectively. We have been able to fill almost all the reservoirs with water without wasting water.”
The groundwater level, he said, should be at least 8 metres in the next two seasons. “The interlinking of rivers is a critical goal and will cost ` 1 lakh crore. We are expecting help from the Centre. If the Krishna-Godavari rivers are linked, Rayalaseema will turn agrarian.”
Principal Secretary to water resources, Sai Prasad, said the work on the Polavaram project was being accelerated. Collectors should give priority to construction of check dams in the NREGA works. “They should explore new areas with the potential to store additional water in the districts.”
Sai Prasad said that the Pulichintala dam was full and water would be released from this dam for the Kharif season in June.
