Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today announced the sanction of super specialty block to the government general hospital here, at a cost of Rs 70 crore, expansion of Air Port and a mango market yard at Nuzvid and cattle market yard at Nandigama. Announcing the sops at a press conference here today, Chief Minister said that the super specialty block would be constructed in two phases at a cost of Rs 70 crore. Fifty crore rupees was sanctioned for acquirement of land for the expansion of Gannavaram ‘air port’. The District Collect was asked to take up land acquisition process for the air port, he informed. The Chief Minister in response to the mango farmer’s appeal for a mango market yard, he announced that mango market yard would be constructed at Nuzvid in the district and a cattle market yard would come up at Nandigama. He informed that in a bid to promote oil palm cultivation in the state, he had written a letter to the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to sanction Rs 2000 crore per year for five years to the state to encourage oil palm cultivation in big way, so that, the edible oil import, for which, we are spending Rs 30,000 crore, could be reduced to a large extent. Responding to a question, Mr Reddy said that Rs 200 crore had been spent for the Krishna delta modernisation work and attributed the delay to non-availability of sand. He assured the completion the construction of Pulichintala major irrigation project, across the river Krishna, at the earliest. When asked about the prevailing tense situation in Hyderabad in the walk of the million march by separate Telangana activists, Mr Reddy avoided straight answer by quipping that if the government had the support of media, all problem would be overcome. Earlier, the Chief Minister participated in various programmes in and around the city. It was his concluding day of the three-day tour of Krishna district. UNI
