The State Cabinet which met here on Friday discussed a proposal to hike power tariff to those consuming above 100 units every month and sources said it almost got approved.
There is a sense of urgency as the A.P. Electricity Regulatory Commission has fixed January 8 for receiving power tariff proposals from the government. The Cabinet is stated to have discussed the sticky issue at length but put off the final decision to few days after Sankranti festival. Accordingly the government may seek time from the commission.
A significant decision taken by the Cabinet was to give another opportunity to the contractors to complete the pending irrigation projects under Jalayagnam. In all 41 projects to bring 23 lakh acres under cultivation are pending requiring Rs. 21,280 crore. Two committees would work out the modalities of giving contracts. The Cabinet decided to complete the pending project in five years by allocating more funds.
At a media briefing later, IT and Information and Public Relations Minister Palle Raghunath Reddy said the Cabinet approved the AP Fibre Grid project to provide optical fibre network from State down to village. Internet connectivity with 10 to 15 Mbps speed would be provided to 12 million households at affordable tariff.
The Cabinet also gave its nod to formation of women’s empowerment corporation on the lines of the one started for farmers, to implement the loan waiver scheme for women’s self-help groups.
