Hyderabad, December 09: On the occasion of the birthday of UPA chairperson and AICC President Sonia Gandhi, Chief Minister N.Kiran Kumar Reddy today approved four important files, and the schemes are as follows.
The members of Self Help Groups in the Andhra Pradesh will get interest-free loans up to Rs.5 lakh from January 1, 2012. However, women would be eligible for interest waiver only if they ensure prompt repayment. As banks were now charging 14 per cent interest on loans to self help groups, the interest-free loans would cause a financial burden of Rs.1,400 crore on the State Government.
The Government targets to disbursing Rs.10, 000 crore loans to the SHG women this year. The self help groups in the rural areas would be given Rs.9, 000 crore loans while those in the urban areas would get Rs.1, 000 crore.
The State Government has announced a special grant of Rs.200 a tonne of cane for sugar cane farmers under nine cooperative sugar factories. The State Government has sanctioned Rs.50 crore for this purpose.
A comprehensive five-year package is being worked for the sugar cane sector. The government is in the process of getting inputs from experts in the industry. This plan will help all stakeholders. It would assign specific roles for factory management, the Government and farmers.
The Government would encourage factories to go for co-generation, chemical production and other value added products to enhance value for factories and farmers. It may be recalled that the Chief Minister has so far sanctioned Rs.96 crore for the industry after assuming charge.
In order to provide relief to the agricultural labourers, the government has decided to enhance under NREGA the number of man days from 100 to 200 and also increase the wage component by 10 percent in December and 20 percent in the month of January. The Rs.200 Crores expenditure which is likely to be incurred will be borne by the state government. As far as NREGA funds utilisation is concerned, Andhra Pradesh is Number one among the States.
Action plan has been formulated with an estimated cost of Rs.747 Crores in 22 districts under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for providing connectivity to SC, ST and other remote habitations including providing internal roads in the SC/ST habitations.
The government will construct concrete roads and drains in the low lying SC/ST colonies under the NREGA scheme under certain conditions and stipulations. and this scheme will be an added advantage for the development of SC/ST Colonies.
The construction of concrete drains in the low lying SC-ST Colonies will improve the overall hygienic conditions of the area. The Rural Connectivity is now one of the permissible categories of works under MGNREGA. Many of the SC/ST colonies are in the most disadvantageous locations where poor sanitation is prevailing and are prone to diseases like malaria. The decision is to create durable assets in SC/ST localities by providing hygienic conditions and clean sanitation so that diseases like Malaria, Cholera, Diarrohea are prevented.
The project will be implemented by the Grama Panchayat concerned through the Work Executing Member (WEM) who shall be one of the Grama Sabha ward members or Sarpanch or MPTC or ZPTC. The PR Engineering Department will provide the technical support as the Project Implementing Agency, discharging functions like conducting of survey, taking levels, preparing estimates and according technical approvals/technical sanctions, measurement, check-measurement ands generating pay orders using the electronic Fund Management System.
—-Source:AH