The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : YSR promises package to weavers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 13, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

YSR promises package to weavers

By Our Staff Reporter

MANGALAGIRI, FEB.12. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has promised a special package in the coming budget for weavers. He has also announced a package to improve sanitation and make a "better town" out of Mangalagiri. He also announced housing for the poor under the Rajiv Gruha Kalpa scheme when he visited the municipality as part of the "Rajiv nagara baata'' here on Saturday.

Dr. Reddy, who visited the house of a weaver, evinced interest in knowing how a sari was woven. He enquired with the weavers about their problems.

Houses for poor

He said three to four thousand houses, with each unit costing Rs 1 lakh, would be constructed in APIIC land earmarked for a tyre-manufacturing unit that did not materialise. The Government would pay Rs. 30,000 as subsidy and out of the Rs. 70,000, the beneficiary contribution would only be Rs. 7,000. And the remaining Rs. 63,000 would be raised in the form of bank loan. The beneficiaries could repay the amount in easy instalment of Rs. 400 a month over the next 15 years. The Rs. 400 that was being paid as rent now could go towards loan repayment and the beneficiary would ultimately become the owner of the house.

The Chief Minister announced that 500 water connections would be given to the poor in the town for just Rs. 1,200. "Earlier the poor could not pay Rs. 7,000 for a tap connection and the womenfolk had to wait in a queue at the public tape for a pot of water. All that would change now," he said. The drainage system would also be improved as part of the package, Dr. Reddy said.

Rajiv statue unveiled

The Chief Minister entered the town from the by-pass road on the Vijayawada-Guntur highway. He unveiled a statue of Rajiv Gandhi at an intersection and named the junction after the late Prime Minister. Dr Reddy met representatives of various sections as he went around the town. He also met people near a dhobi ghat and promised to resolve their problems.

The Chief Minister laid the foundation-stone for a new municipality office at the bus-stand centre. Extolling the importance of sanitation, he said bad sanitation had a cascading effect on the health of people.

The Chief Minister also inaugurated the new buildings of the mandal parishad upper primary school at Nauluru on the outskirts of Mangalagiri town. Dr. Reddy promised that improvements would be made to Park Road.

Earlier the Tenali MP, Vallabhaneni Bala Shourie, and the Mangalagiri MLA, Murugudu Hanumantha Rao, said the sanitation was poor because of poor drainage. The Minister for Cooperation, Kanna Lakshminarayana, also participated in the programme.

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