KALYANADURG (ANANTAPUR DT.): Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has claimed that his Government has been fulfilling every promise made before the 2004 Assembly elections during the last two years.

Speaking after laying foundation stone for the Rs. 335-crore drinking water project near Ontimidde village near here on Tuesday, he said that Anantapur district required special attention from the State Government as people would go on migration due to lack of livelihood and other basic needs like drinking water. The district was also facing desertification, he noted.

The project would provide safe drinking water to 18.24 lakh population in 1,313 habitations covering Kalyanadurg, Rayadurg, Madakasira, Hindupur, Penukonda, Gooty, Tadipatri and Singanamala constituencies. Stating that the district would become fortunate in the years to come by getting Tungabhadra water for drinking water needs and Krishna water for irrigation through Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanthi project, the Chief Minister explained that the irrigation project was taken up in spite of very high cost benefit ratio.

While the cost of land itself was about Rs. 30 to 40,000 per acre in the area the Government was spending about Rs. 1.12 lakhs per acre to create irrigation potential under Handri Neeva. Besides, the project would also incur recurring expenditure of Rs. 2,000 per acre for maintenance of lifts. The high cost was outweighed by the woes of drought-prone people, he said.

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