The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Digvijay asks State to introduce job guarantee scheme

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 09, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Digvijay asks State to introduce job guarantee scheme

By Our Special Correspondent

VIJAYAWADA, AUG. 8. Living up to the expectations of his reputation as a "champion of rural development," the AICC general secretary and in-charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs, Digvijay Singh, advised the State Government to introduce an employment guarantee scheme in the rural areas for providing at least 100 days of work to the unemployed rural poor.

The Government should design its programmes in such a way that each village should be treated as a unit and would have a shelf of labour-intensive projects. People of villages should be made partners in village governance and they should be empowered to evaluate the works done by contractors, whose introduction into the Panchayat Raj system ushered in the concept of "works for commission." "Once such a system is in place, the rampant migration in search of employment and the problems of starvation will end," he said.

Grain banks suggested

Participating as a guest of honour at a national conference on "Hundred years of rural development in India" organised by the Acharya Nagarjuna University here on Sunday, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister also favoured the creation of grain banks in the villages to cater to the needs of the distressed. The grain banks would provide assistance in the form of kind, the supply of grain to the needy poor and the amount of grain extended as assistance could be recovered after they find a source of employment. An empowered committee of self-help groups could be constituted to monitor the affairs of the grain banks.

Mr. Singh also expressed concern over the alarming rate at which groundwater resources are being exploited in different parts of the country. He felt that this would turn out to be a major social and environmental problem. With the groundwater resources drying up at an alarming rate, the investments being made into drinking water and irrigation sectors were not bearing any fruit. "This problem should be tackled and I hope the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, will address the issue in its right direction," he said.

The Chief Minister, who declared open the conference, expressed concern that the previous Governments at the State and in the Centre neglected farmers as well as other sections like farm labour and artisans. The rampant privatisation of public sector undertakings in the name of liberalisation and globalisation that paved way for the entry of spurious seeds and fertilizers only compounded the problems of different sectors, leading to suicides by ryots, weavers and artisans. The Acharya Nagarjuna University Vice-Chancellor, L. Venugopala Reddy, explained the activities taken up by the university, in his presidential address. Ministers Kanna Lakshminarayana, Koneru Ranga Rao and Pinnamaneni Venkateswara Rao, MLAs from Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts and others were also present.

Pat for YSR

Mr. Digvijay Singh exuded confidence that Dr. Reddy would surpass the records of all the Chief Ministers in the country in the days to come. "Both of us were appointed presidents of the respective Pradesh Congress Committees at the same time. But I had an opportunity to become the Chief Minister while Dr. Reddy had to patiently wait for all these years to assume the charge of the coveted post," said Mr. Singh. His comments assume significance in the light of the continuing internal squabbles in the State Congress over a wide range of issues.

Mr. Singh, who maintained silence on the repeated queries posed by media men at Hyderabad about the party affairs on Saturday, made a suo motu statement over the leadership qualities of Dr. Reddy while participating as a guest of honour in the national conference on `hundred years of rural development in India.'

Dr. Reddy was no less appreciative of Mr. Singh when it came to speaking about the issues pertaining to rural development.

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