The Siddapur village in the Kothur mandal of the Mahabubnagar district is all set to get a facelift with Telugu matinee idol Mahesh Babu speeding up his efforts to develop it.
Mahesh's spouse Namratha Shirodkar today called on Panchayat Raj Minister Jupally Krishna Rao at the Secretariat and discussed the village's development, and the couple's plans to equip it with modern facilities.
Shadnagar MLA Anjaiah and Mahabubnagar District Collector Sridevi attended the meeting.
Later, Namratha Shirodkar told reporters that the minister had promised all possible support for developing Siddapur into a model village.
She said that the minister, officials and she had discussed facilities like drinking water, individual toilets, power supply and road facility being extended to the village. The village had three lambada thandas nearby comprising 260 houses, and of the village's 460 houses 442 had no toilets, compelling people to resort to open defecation, Shirodkar said. The people also needed a 60,000-litre capacity overhead tank, and a dilapidated sub-station needed immediate repairs to avoid erratic power supply, she informed the media.
Later, the minister directed the Collector to take immediate measures to supply uninterrupted power, and construct toilets under the IHHL scheme.
The government planned to enhance all villages with better facilities as per the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, the minister said.
Shirodkar had in April last conducted a health camp in the same village, and had vowed to conduct similar camps once every three months besides, and also resolve all issues of the village in a phased manner.
The initiative took off after her actor-husband adopted Siddapur after his film
Srimanthudu with a similar theme was appreciated by Telangana minister K T Rama Rao who asked him to adopt a village in real life in the State.