YSR's plan for farmers: Bottled water, community farming (Lead, superseding earlier story)

The Andhra Pradesh government plans to supply bottled drinking water to all its villages and introduce community farming for better returns to farmers.

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Friday announced that the water supply scheme would be launched on Aug 15, Independence Day, in all villages that don't have protected and piped water supply.

In his inaugural address at the two-day conference of district collectors, the chief minister asked the officials to prepare details of the water supply scheme for each district.

"The bottled water scheme costs Rs.200,000 in each hamlet and this can supply safe drinking water to 1,500 to 2,000 people. I want every habitation in the state to be supplied protected drinking water," he said.

The chief minister, who was addressing the first such meeting after assuming office for the second consecutive term, hoped that 50 to 60 percent villages in every district would get bottled water by next year .

YSR, as the chief minister is popularly known, also announced that the government's decision to introduce community or cooperative farming in the state would ensure good returns to farmers. He recalled that this was one of the three promises made by the Congress party in recent elections.

He has called an all party meeting on June 29 to elicit the opinion of other parties on the issue.

"I want to make this a model programme for the entire country," he told the meeting attended by his cabinet colleagues, top bureaucrats and district collectors of all 23 districts.

He said community farming would be the flagship programme of his government in the next five years to increase the productivity and to ensure better returns to small and marginal farmers.

The programme would be modelled on collective farming in Israel, China and Vietnam.

"It will not be imposed on anybody and will be taken up in the villages where the farmers will come forward on their own," he said.

Under the community farming programme, about 1,000 acres of land will be brought together under a company equally owned and managed by the land owning farmers to take up precision and mechanised agriculture, horticulture, sericulture, poultry, goat or sheep rearing and allied activities.

A group of farmers can come together, form a cooperative and offer their land for agriculture. "If a group of farmers come together and the value of their land is Rs.10 crore (Rs.100 million), the government will contribute an equal amount as seed money. They can borrow another Rs.20 crore (Rs.200 million) to Rs.30 crore (Rs.300 million) from banks," he said.

YSR asked the officials to rededicate themselves to effectively implement the schemes launched by his government during the last five years. He blamed the poor delivery mechanism for the Congress party not getting overwhelming majority in the state assembly.

"People have said good, go ahead. They have not given us distinction," he said and asked the officials to plug leakages, strengthen delivery systems and be accessible to people. He wanted district collectors to keep computerised records of people's petitions and the action taken to address them.

The Congress party, which retained power in the recent elections, bagged 155 seats in the 294-member assembly.

YSR also announced that he would make surprise visits to villages to see if the people were being provided with basic amenities and if the welfare schemes were reaching all the eligible people. He directed the officials to prepare helipads in every mandal headquarter for his helicopter to land.

Last updated on Jun 26^th, 2009 at 19:38 pm IST--IANS