Andhra Pradesh   

Top priority for rural water supply, says Srinivas

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MAY 28. The Rural Development Minister, D. Srinivas, on Friday took charge and signed the first file pertaining to the Rs. 3-crore drinking water, telecommunications and road project in the rural division of Miryalguda under the Provision of Urban Amenities for Rural Areas (PURA) scheme of the Central Government. The project will be launched soon.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Srinivas said he would give a thrust to drinking water supply and sanitation programmes in rural areas, extend Velugu, the poverty elimination programme to 235 more mandals and provide loans to DWCRA groups at three per cent interest as promised in the Congress manifesto.

He said he was quite happy with the portfolio as he had handled it earlier and as he hailed from a rural area. Drinking water would be accorded top priority especially in villages with no water source and the flourosis-affected villages of Nalgonda. In all, 6,000 more habitations would be covered under the programme this year. The Government would consider handing over maintenance of hand pumps to panchayats.

As for the rural sanitation programme, 18 lakh of the targeted 39 lakh Individual Sanitary Latrines had been completed and work on the rest would be speeded up.

In reply to a question, he said he would ask officials to study if projects under DWCRA and Velugu could be brought under one umbrella, owing to their similarity. He said the Government's decision to review World Bank loans would not affect Velugu. "Review would not mean scrapping of the programme. Loopholes would be rectified and the programme would be continued".

He said the Telugu Desam had used DWCRA women more as vote banks and there was a big gap between the Central Government's guidelines and the way it was implemented by the State Government. "We will take appropriate steps to bridge the gap," he said.

The Minister said watershed and rainwater harvesting programmes would be given due importance bringing more habitations under their coverage. The new Government would also raise the subsidy for sprinkler irrigation from the present 50 per cent to 90 per cent.

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