HYDERABAD: Residents of Vasalamarri village had an unusually delightful day as they shared lunch with none other than Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and interacted session with him for over an hour where they aired their grievances on Tuesday.
And a few of them even luckier as the Chief Minister himself and served the dishes comprising 15 varieties of vegetarian and non-vegetarian items including biryani, chicken, mutton, fish, prawns, shrimp, etc in addition to a variety of sweets.
The Chief Minister went near each table and enquired with the villagers about the dishes and served food to a few of them. He also had lunch along with them.
The tiny village in Yadadri Bhongir district was adopted by the Chief Minister in November last but he could not visit all these days due to Covid-19 restrictions.
On Tuesday, the Chief Minister, along with a few ministers and top officials, arrived at his adopted village by bus at noon. He hosted lunch for the entire village of about 2,500 people.
Later, he held a grama sabha with villagers to discuss and devise plans to transform the village as "Bangaru Vasalamarri '' in a year by ensuring all-round development. He inspired villagers by sharing his thoughts and ideas on how great results could be achieved through collective hard work in a time bound manner.
Chandrashekar Rao called upon the villagers to work towards self-governance and self-sustenance by developing the village into a model village for all. He wanted them to work with the motto of ‘all for one and one for all’ and weed out discrimination or hatred towards each other in order to progress together.
The Chief Minister appointed Bhongir district collector Pamela Satpathy as the special officer for development of the village. He also announced that the government would release '100 crore '150 crore for development of the village after finalising the plans and proposals. But the funds should be put to use properly which would be possible only when the entire village worked unitedly, he asserted.
“People should set aside their differences and should not allow any kind of discrimination – caste, religion or even politics. Development should be our caste and religion. I appeal to all to spare two hours per week for development of the village and we can transform the entire village within one year,” he said. He suggested constituting various committees including village development, sanitation and drinking water, agriculture and others.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister sanctioned '1 crore for Bhongir municipality along with '50 lakh each to the remaining five municipalities of Alair, Bhoodan Pochampalli, Choutuppal, Mothkur and Yadadri. He also allocated '25 lakh each for 421 gram panchayats in Yadadri Bhongir district from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) in addition to the funds sanctioned to all local bodies.
Earlier in the day, Rao performed a special puja at Lord Rama temple in the village after his arrival.
