Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday vowed to transform Pulivendula into a horticultural hub, and establish cold storage and food processing units.
Addressing people at the Janmabhoomi Maa Vooru meeting at Pulivendula in Kadapa district, Mr. Naidu called upon the farmers to shift from agriculture to horticulture, dairy, poultry, sheep breeding, and pisciculture for increasing their sources of revenue.
The agricultural produce should be changed in accordance with the changing food habits, he said, and promised water to all horticultural crops.
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Interlinking of rivers
Mr. Naidu asserted that his government had spent ₹50,000 crore on the irrigation projects and brought 122 tmcft water to Rayalaseema by linking the Godavari and the Krishna. Completion of the Polavaram project would put an end to the woes of the farmers of Rayalaseema and make the region fertile, he said.
His government completed the pending land acquisition for the Gandikota reservoir and built an alternative tunnel at Owk in place of the dilapidated one. Getting water to the Somasila reservoir would help several districts, he said.
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The Chief Minister asserted that the government waived loans to the tune of ₹262 crore of 67,188 farmers in Pulivendula.
It was disbursing ₹2.88 crore towards pension, besides giving ₹47.88 crore aid to 957 DWCRA groups and sanctioning 3,750 houses and 2,230 house sites in Pulivendula town and implementing the Chandranna Bima and fee reimbursement schemes.
Stating that a 10-star rating would be given to the villages basing on the amenities, Mr. Naidu said a similar rating was also being proposed for villages for their economic improvement and prevalence of peace.
Asserting that the government was concentrating on health of the people, he said a 5k run was being organised in all the towns and panchayats.
Cultural programmes such as ‘harikatha’ and ‘burrakatha’ were on the wane, and people were confining themselves to watching cinemas and television, he observed.
Take up hobbies and arts, and sports for physical and mental fitness and top performers would be given prizes, he said.
The government would also felicitate centenarians. He said plans were afoot to help 12,000 MEPMA members in Pulivendula.
The previous government had given an aid of ₹11 crore to women in Pulivendula town till 2014, Mr. Naidu said, and added that his government increased it to ₹90 crore.