The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : YSR showers sops on villagers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

YSR showers sops on villagers

By Our Staff Reporter

KURNOOL, NOV. 23. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, tried to reach out to rural people by announcing sops on the spot during the "Rajiv pallebaata" programme in interior areas of the Aluru and Adoni constituencies of Kurnool district on Tuesday.

After addressing a public meeting at Aluru, Dr. Reddy, accompanied by his ministerial colleagues, M. Mareppa and Konatala Ramakrishna and MPs and MLAs from the district, embarked on his pet programme, stopping at road junctions of every village.

Major complaint

He interacted with people at Hulebeedu, Angasakallu, Manekurthi, A. Gonehal, Kammarachedu, Chagi and Narayapuram. Everywhere, people complained about the crop damage caused by blackbucks. The Chief Minister said he would take up the issue with forest officials and see what could be done.

At Narayanapuram, the farmers drew the attention of the Chief Minister to the low voltage problem. Dr. Reddy wanted to know whether the problem was caused by illegal tapping of power or some problem in the distribution system.

The farmers admitted that they resorted to illegal drawal only to save standing crops. He did not heed the request of the farmers that they would ready to pay the charges for regularisation of connections.

He made it clear that the Government itself would sanction new connections when the generation improved.

At Hulebeedu, the Chief Minister unveiled the project to eradicate child labour and interacted with parents of child workers. The parents explained to him that they were sending their children to work because of poverty. Dr. Reddy said the children would be admitted to residential schools.

To a complaint from aided school teachers that they were not paid salaries, the Chief Minister advised schools to achieve self-sufficiency by increasing fee as the Government was not in a position to shoulder the burden.

Addressing a meeting at the market yard in Adoni after inaugurating the cotton yard, Dr. Reddy said the Government would represent to the Centre to place the Valmikis under the Scheduled Tribe category.

The "Palle baata" programme evoked good response. The programme also helped sort out differences between the MP, Kotla Jayasuryaprakasa Reddy, and Mr. Mareppa.

The Chief Minister promised to take up construction of a balancing reservoir on High Level Canal at Nagaradona to stabilise the ayacut at a cost of Rs. 15 crores. Also, he promised a summer storage tank for Adoni at a cost of Rs. 18 crores and a railway overbridge costing Rs. 15 crores.

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