Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu addressing a public meeting at Sunnipenta in Nandyal district on Thursday. | Photo Credit: U. SUBRAMANYAM
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has promised to address the water-related issues of Rayalaseema as part of his efforts to transform the water-starved region into a fertile belt.
During his interaction with the Water Users’ Association (WUA) of Sunnipenta in Srisailam constituency of Nandyal district on August 1 (Thursday), Mr. Naidu offered to take it up responsibility to mitigate the woes of the farmers.
Poverty-free society
“If water is available, wealth can be created, which generates revenue to the government. This will ultimately help alleviate poverty,” he said, underlining the need to create a poverty-free society.
Mr. Naidu laid emphasis on the need to generate revenue first in order to distribute wealth to the poor and also extend all kinds of welfare schemes to the beneficiaries.
Calling social justice as the cornerstone of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the State, the Chief Minister spoke on making optimum use of available water to generate income for society.
Mr. Naidu later conducted ‘Praja Vedika’ at Gundumala in Madakasira mandal of Sri Sathya Sai district, where he interacted with the beneficiaries of social security pensions.
Linking of rivers
He explained his idea of mitigating poverty in the backward Rayalaseema region by completing Polavaram project and linking the rivers flowing across the State.
Recalling that the erstwhile TDP regime (2014-2019) had spent a whopping ₹68,000 crore only on the irrigation sector, Mr. Naidu said the successor YSRCP government had undone all the progress achieved previously, making the incumbent regime start from the scratch.
Drip irrigation
Referring to the manner in which the YSRCP government had also shelved numerous schemes meant to benefit the farm sector, the Chief Minister announced to revive the drip irrigation system, which, he said, would work wonders for the parched district. He also announced to build two reservoirs for the Madakasira region to enhance storage.
