Kakinada: Water Resources minister Nimmala Ramanaidu underlined that the state government has sanctioned ₹350 crore for repair of irrigation projects, including the damaged gates of Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram. Participating as chief guest at the Annadata Sukhibhava programme at Kovvuru along with East Godavari collector P. Prashanti on Saturday, Ramanaidu said projects are being repaired to ensure that sufficient water is available to irrigate the agriculture fields. He pointed out that as a part of implementing “Super Six’’ promises, the state government will provide ₹20,000 to each of 1.14 lakh farmers in the district under the Annadata programme amounting to ₹79 crores in the first phase. The minister recalled that during TD’s previous tenure, the state government supplied agriculture equipment on subsidy, apart from input subsidy to farmers. However, the YSRC government neglected the agriculture sector and went on to reduce the input subsidy to ₹16,000 from ₹20,000. Presiding over the programme, Kovvuru MLA Muppidi Venkateswara Rao went on to point out that the YSRC government had not cleared the ₹1,600 crore arrears to farmers, which the alliance government has now paid to farmers. Speaking on the occasion, collector Prashanthi said seeds, fertilisers and drones are being made available to farmers at subsidised rates. Those present on the occasion included additional SP Subba Raju, RDO Rani Suhmitha, and joint director (Agriculture) N. Madhava Rao.
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