Top priority for rural development: Minister

Hyderabad, May 11 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Rural Development Minister G Chinna Reddy today said the state government has been giving top priority to rural development along with agricultural sector by initiating several welfare schemes for the poor in the rural areas.

Addressing his first press conference after assuming charge, he said the State had spent Rs 6,000 crore for rural development during the last three years and earmarked Rs 3,000 crore for the current financial year.

The government had taken up watershed and land development programmes under Indira Prabha, implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme(NREGS), area development programmes, desert development programme and Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihood programmes.

The state government had earmarked Rs 500 crore for land development programmes to bring the land for cultivation under Indira Prabha Scheme. He said 3.75 acres of land assigned to poor people, which was identified as not useful for cultivation, would be brought under cultivation under the scheme at an estimated cost of Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 per hectare which would benefit 2.64 lakh poor families.

He said the government had assigned over 50 lakh acre of land to the poor since independence. However, they were not put to use due to lack of integrated inputs.

The government had taken up watershed programmes being implemented on micro-watershed basis with peoples' involvement since 1995-96.

Besides soil land moisture conservation, water harvesting and plantations, the watershed programmes focus on productivity enhancement and promoting diversified livelihoods for poor households in Andhra Pradesh.

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