The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister T. S. R. Reddy has announced an ambitious project for transforming all the habitations in the southern state of India as model villages and towns over the next three years.
To be implemented in three phases from April 2006, the project will cost around Rs 23,000 crore. As part of the project, nine basic needs will be provided to villages in a comprehensive manner by making use of the prevailing government schemes.
“The programme includes housing, water supply, drinking water, nutrition, primary and pre-primary education, health, electricity connection, pension for old, widow and disabled and link roads,” the Chief Minister said at a press conference after a three-hour meeting with ministers and senior officials in Hyderabad the other day.
Thirty percent of the population of each constituency (which comprises six or seven villages) will be covered in the initial phase of the programme, which will commence on April 1, 2006. The remaining habitations will be covered in the subsequent financial years.
The chief minister said that the proposed project was only a restructuring of the existing schemes and their implementation in a more rigorous way.
“The government is already spending Rs 19,000 crore a year on diverse welfare scheme and Rs 4000 crore required would be mobilised from various governmental and non-governmental agencies. The government’s aim is to ensure basic amenities in all villages by 2009,” Reddy said.
The beneficiaries of the project will be identified with the help of grama panchayats. A coordination committee will be set up to supervise the implementation of the scheme.
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