AP CM PAMPERED HIS CONSITUENCY 'PILERU' SHINING

In Andhra Pradesh, Kuppam and Pulivendula are history. Pileru represented by AP chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy is now the most pampered assembly constituency in the state. For the past several months, this little known town with a population of about 60,000 people has been sanctioned every possible kind of developmental project, ranging from a sports stadium to a hospital. And at least some of them smack of special treatment. As a result, Pileru has emerged as an island of development in the backward Chittoor district of Rayalaseema. 
    
Just in the last two and half years since Kiran Kumar Reddy took over as chief minister, the assembly constituency has received more than Rs 1,000 crore as special grants for various projects. “Even though Pileru came into existence only in 2009, it has received the largest amount of funds for developmental works compared to any other assembly constituency in the state,” said an official on condition of anonymity.

    
On Tuesday, in a first of its kind for a rural constituency, the planning department released Rs 12.51 crore as the first instalment of Rs 40 crore to the specially created Area Development Authority, Pileru (ADAP). Under the control of the planning department, the authority was set up in 2011 for the overall development of the chief minister’s constituency and is flush with funds, schemes and projects comparable only to Pulivendula of the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy in Kadapa district and Kuppam of TDP president Chandrababu Naidu in Chittoor district. 
    
Since its creation, the Pileru development authority has received Rs 150 crore at a time when most urban and rural towns are starved of funds. “The only difference is that Kiran is concentrating on smaller projects as the state economy and his political situation in the Congress are not conducive to go in for massive projects,” official sources explained. According to them, bigger projects with massive outlays attract undue attention and lead to controversies. 

In fact, just a month after Kiran Kumar Reddy assumed office in November 2010, Pileru was declared a “notified tourism area.” From then onwards, it has received top priority in every aspect of development, from construction of MRO offices to bridges, to roads, residential schools and colleges, hospitals as well as restoration of minor irrigation tanks. 
    
The importance given to Pileru can be gauged from the establishment of residential coaching centre for minority students in the state. In November 2012, the state government issued a GO setting up three such institutes to give coaching for students from the minority sections wanting to pursue higher studies. While two of them were set up in the district headquarters of Nizamabad and Kadapa, the third is in the rural town of Pileru, which, incidentally, is about 100 km from Kadapa town. 
    
Apart from Pileru, Kalikiri town falling under the same assembly constituency, too has seen a windfall since the ascension of Kiran as CM. The largesse for these two towns include a residential school for girls (Rs 10 cr), Sainik School at Kalikiri (Rs 70 cr), a junior college for girls and an industrial training institute in Pileru while a residential school at Vayalapadu has been upgraded into a junior college at a cost of Rs 4 cr. 
    

In the fourth month of Kiran’s chief ministership, the hospital at Pileru was upgraded from 50 beds to 100 beds. After this, orders were issued for the construction of mini stadia in Vayalpadu, Kalikiri and Pileru mandal headquarters equipped with all indoor facilities at a cost of Rs 1.2 cr each. A modern guest house has come up at CM’s village Nagarivari Palle. While the water bodies in Hyderabad have been encroached upon by the land mafia, those in Pileru have been strengthened or restored with the help of special funds. 
    
Among the ongoing projects are an industrial park that is coming up on 697 acres of land while black top roads are being laid connecting every village in Pileru and Kalikiri at a frenzied pace. “If Kiran Kumar Reddy lasts till the 2014 elections, which appear so under the present political circumstances, then Pileru will end up as the most developed assembly constituency in the state and become for ever the ‘personal’ seat of the Kiran family, like Kuppam and Pulivendula have become,” said an official.