TECHVIL, a technology village to improve the quality of life of people living below poverty line through science & technology interventions is being established under a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) initiative at Mandollagudem Gram Panchayat in Nalgonda district.
As many as 24 villages have been chosen for the 12th Five Year Plan to improve the quality of life of one million people by covering a population of 50,000 surrounding each village.
These villages were identified due to high proportion of families living below poverty line. CSIR-800 seeks to enhance the income levels and improve the quality of life of about 800 million people in various parts of the country through the entire duration of the programme.
CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) is setting up TECHVIL at Mandollagudem in Choutuppal mandal.
In each TECHVIL, a Grameen Vigyan Kutir (GVK) will be constructed to house need-based rural technologies for use by local villages to improve their livelihood. Around 50,000 people from the surrounding village panchayats would be benefited by the CSIR’s rural technologies, according to Mrinal K.Sen, Director, NGRI.
He said that water availability was a big issue in those villages and the potential for water-bearing zones in those places was being studied by NGRI.
Programme Coordinator for TECHVIL and senior scientist, NGRI, M.J. Nandan says that Mandollagudem TECHVIL Cluster was a drought-prone area and average rainfall was 620 mm. Besides severe water crisis, areas were also affected with fluoride problem. He said NGRI had already identified potential groundwater bearing zones in seven habitations around Mandollagudem and would undertake a survey to find similar zones in 18 other habitations in due course.
He said that NGRI had an expertise in the area of ground water exploration and would provide solutions to the cluster of villages surrounding Mandollagudem. Later, a ‘Needs Assessment Survey’ would be conducted to map the requirements of these villages and find technological solutions, he added.
