AP Govt forms ITDA for merged mandals

Vijayawada, April 12 (INN): A new Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) with Chintur in East Godavari district as headquarters has been created.

This will be the 7th ITDA in the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation of the combined State out of which separate Telangana State was carved in June 2014.

The already existing ITDAs in Andhra Pradesh are in Paderu of Visakhapatnam district, Seethampeta of Srikakulam district Rampachodavaram of East Godavari and Kota Ramachandrapuram of West Godavari district. An exclusive ITDA for Chenchu community is located in Srisailam Kurnool dist for the districts ' Kurnool, Guntur, Prakasam, and Nellore. The ITDAs came into being in 1975 and as the name indicates, were -formed with the sole purpose of integrated development of tribal areas.

The new ITDA is formed consequent on the bifurcation of the combined Andhra Pradesh State which resulted in seven mandals from Khammam district of the present Telangana state which have predominantly tribal population, have been tagged to the residuary state.

These include four mandals --Bhadrachalam (except Bhadrachalam revenue village), Kunavaram, Chintur and Vara Ramachandrapuram whcih were merged in East Godavari district and three mandals --Kukunuru, Velairpadu and six villages of Burghampadu mandal of Khammam district - Seetharamanagaram, Sridharvalair, Gumpanpalli, Ganapavaram, Ibrahimpet and Ravigudem merged into West Godavari district consequent on bifurcation of the State.

On merging into East Godavari district, the four mandals of Bhadrachalam, Kunavaram, Chintur and Vara Ramachandrapuram have come into the operational area of ITDA Rampachodavaram of East Godavari district. However, as these mandals are in the river basin of Godavari and due to geographical constrains, it is difficult for the tribal population inhabiting in these mandals not only to access the services of ITDA Rampachodavaram, but also to the project administration for effective outreach in implementation of the welfare and development programmes.

Therefore, the need for an exclusive ITDA catering to the welfare and development needs of the tribal population of the four mandals of Khammam merged in East Godavari was felt and hence - the ITDA Chintur.

The jurisdiction of the newly created ITDA Chintur in East Godavari district will have Bhadrachalam revenue mandal barring Bhadrachalam revenue village, revenue mandals of Kunavaram, Chintur, and VR Puram with head quarters in Chintur.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will commission the new ITDA on Wednesday in Chintur and he will participate in several other welfare programmes in the newly merged tribal area.