Hyderabad, September 13: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit the State before September 20 to lay the foundation stone for the joint venture project of BHEL and NTPC for manufacturing electrical equipment in Mannavaram in Chittoor district.
The credit for bringing the BHEL and NTPC Joint Venture should certainly go to former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who strived hard to get the plant, Chief Minister Rosaiah said and added that the plant would be named after him.
Speaking to media persons here, he said that he would take up the matter pertaining to setting up of IFFCO plant at Nellore with the Prime Minister.
Though the matter was followed up by late Rajasekhara Reddy, a formal nod from the Centre was awaited and the State would request Manmohan Singh to clear the project at the earliest.
On the drought situation in the State, Rosaiah said the State had already declared about 971 mandals as drought hit and did not declare another 10 mandals in Srikakulam due to Tekkali Assembly bypoll.
Now that the byelection is over, ten mandals in Srikakulam district were also declared drought hit.
The State Government had taken measures to reschedule the crop loans which were levied an interest of 25 paise and the State Government wanted the Centre to accord about two per cent rebate on the interest on crop loans.
—Agencies