Will take up four new 'Shilparamams': AP CM

Hyderabad, Oct 26: Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has agreed to take up four new 'Shilparamams' each at Vijayawada, Nellore, Anantapur and Warangal and ordered to begin land acquisition process for these projects.

These are in addition to the five Shilparamams existing in the State at Hyderabad, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Kadapa, and Pulivendula(under progress). Further, he has directed to expedite the Budget Hotels at Nellore and Nizamabad and make them available to the tourists.

He was reviewing the progress of projects of Tourism, Culture and Archaeology departments with Minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy and senior officials at Secretariat.

The Chief Minister also gave green signal for the construction of 30 new budget hotels in the districts except in Hyderabad and directed the officials to send the proposals for Cabinet approval.

He directed to take up the three new centrally funded Heritage Circuit Projects by taking necessary technical approvals and calling tenders before the end of November. The Centre has sanctioned Rs 46.52 crore to Chittoor-Nellore heritage circuit and already released Rs 23.26 crore. For Kadapa heritage circuit project a sum of Rs 39.74 crore was sanctioned and Rs 18.46 crore were released and for the Integrated Chittoor circuit, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 2.84 crore and released Rs 2.27 crore.

So far, the Project Management Unit of the Tourism Department has contributed revenue to the tune of Rs 42 crore since the last seven years. Similarly, the APTDC has contributed to the government Ex-chequer Rs 17.16 crore for the same period.

The Chief Minister directed to take up Kadapa, Nellore, Ongole and Kurnool Multi-purpose Cultural Complexes each at Rs 2 crore from State budget. Earlier, the cultural complexes were being funded by both State and Centre and the GOI scheme is not in existence now.

The Chief Minister agreed to launch formally the distribution of old age pensions to 7,000 new artists from November.

The Chief Minister also agreed in principle to establish ''Kuchipudi Nritya Ashram'' near Rajahmundry on the lines of ''Kalamandalam of Kerala'' and ''Kalakshetra of Tamil Nadu.''

UNI