Hyderabad, May 19: With an aim to provide irrigation facility to about 10 lakh acres belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the state government will launch a new scheme ‘Indira Jala Prabha’soon.
The scheme will be funded through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
It would be the first new scheme launched by chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy after coming to power apart from reviving the ‘Rachabanda’ programme envisaged by former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
Incidentally, Kiran Kumar Reddy continued the legacy of YS Rajasekhara Reddy and named the scheme after former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
It may be recalled that Rajasekhara Reddy was known for naming all schemes of the state government after Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, rural development minister D Manikya Varaprasad said that the state government had identified about 26 lakh acres of land belonging to SC and STs across the state and decided to provide irrigation facilities.
“Apart from developing or reviving the water tanks and digging canals, we are also prepared to drill one lakh borewells to provide irrigation water to these fields as per requirement,” the minister said.
The government will spend Rs 1,600 crore for implementation of the scheme where Rs 800 crore each will be provided under NREGS and Nabard, the minister said.
In an attempt to curb irregularities in implementation of NREGS in the state, the chief minister directed the authorities to prepare proposals to bring out a new Act for dealing with the people involved in such irregularities.
The new Act will be a combination of various existing laws to initiate stringent criminal action against the culprits who resort to irregularities in implementation of NREGS.
–Agencies