KARIMNAGAR: Strong attempts are being made to transform all towns in the state into model towns in the country under the guidance of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, IT minister K.T. Rama Rao said.
Accompanied by welfare minister Koppula Eshwar, MLAs K.Vidyasagar Rao and Dr Sanjay Kumar and zilla parishad chairperson Dava Vasantha, he participated in various developmental activities during his tour of Korutla and Metpally municipalities on Monday.
Speaking to media persons, Rao said that around 43 per cent of the state population lives in towns. Before the formation of Telangana state, there were only 68 municipalities but it has now risen to 142.
With rapid urbanisation, thousands of people are shifting to nearby towns and cities for livelihoods. Keeping these in mind, several steps are being taken for providing all basic facilities to transform towns into beautiful cities while strictly implementing the new Municipal Act, he said.
Despite the financial crisis, the state government has allotted Rs 500 crore for developing towns and to establish vegetarian and non-vegetarian markets in all municipalities, he informed. Towards this, a foundation stone was laid for establishing veg and non-veg markets in Metpally municipality at a cost of Rs 6.5 crore. Except in Hyderabad municipality, burial ground constructions were almost completed in all the 141 municipalities against a budgetary allocation of Rs. 200 crore, the minister pointed out.
As per new Municipal Act, based on population, around Rs 142 crore was released for various developmental activities for each municipality every month under Pattana Pragathi programme and Rs 300 crore for a fecal sludge treatment plant for filtration of human wastes for the first time in the country and granted permission for about 71 municipalities, including Metpally and Korutla, he said.
Rao said that while there were only three government medical colleges in the state — Kakatiya, Gandhi and RIMS —before Telangana state formation, the Chandrasekhar Rao government has sanctioned five medical colleges, and seven medical and nursing colleges, including one in Jagtial district.
He assured journalists that the state government is determined to sanction housing plots for them and would speed up the process once the lockdown was lifted.
District collector G. Ravi, municipal department commissioner Satyanarayana, superintendent of police Sindhu Sharma, Korutla municipal chairperson Annam Lavanya were present on the occasion.
