Khammam: Minister for agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said that the government would sanction a second oil palm factory for Khammam district soon.

The minister who came to Dammapet for the MLC election campaign on Wednesday, said that the government has a plan to make Khammam district the oil bowl of Telangana state.

He said that the country is importing edible oil from different countries and spending crores of rupees in foreign exchange. “Such expenditure will be reduced if we produce more palm oil in our state,” he observed.

He interacted with the palm oil farmers and enquired about their problems. The peasants told the minister that they have been facing increasing labour costs in reaping of palm fruits. Mr Pocharam said that the government would supply the fruit reaping machines to youth on subsidy.

“Cutting the fruits will be cheap and easier and the youth will get employment with this,” he said. Minister for roads and buildings T, Nageswara Rao and DCCB chairman M. Vijay Babu accompanied Mr Pocharam.