Mines and district in-charge Minister Galla Arunka Kumari today said the land acquisition process for the Machilipatnam port would begin within one month as the Government Order, issued for the purpose, under the examination of Finance department. Addressing District Review Meeting in district head quarters, Machilipatnam, she said the government had issued order to acquire 4,800 acres of land for the port and the order is being examined by the finance department. She informed that 10.70 lakhs of houses are being constructed under the Indiramma housing scheme and construction of another 15 lakh houses would be started soon. The Minister said the sand for the construction of houses should be supplied by the sand reach contractors, without collecting senarage tax, worth Rs 200 crore in the state. If the contractors deny supply of sand for the construction of houses without collecting senarage, action would be taken against the sand contractors, the Minister warned. She said that tenders for the 14 sand reaches in Krishna and Guntur districts would be called soon. Ms Arun Kumari said steps were taken to supply seeds and fertilizers to the farmers and highlighted that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy had taken initiation to supply water to save crop in the kharif season in the Krisnna Delta, though the water level is very low at Nagarjunasagar dam. She informed that steps are being taken to fill up the vacant posts of Assistant Engineers in the irrigation department. Due to sudden increase of consumption of power by 15 per cent, power shortage emerged,forcing the government to impose compulsory power cuts, she said. Secondary Education Minister K Parthasarathi, MPs Lagadapati Rajgopal, K Narayana a host of MLAs, MLCs and district officials attended the meeting UNI
