VIJAYAWADA: The State Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday, approved water grid with the objective to provide safe drinking water to every household in the State. Water grid is one of the five grids envisaged by the TDP when it came to power.
Briefing mediapersons about the decisions taken in the Cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister said water grid was the most important decision taken as it would benefit lakhs of people in the state. “My government’s focus is on ensuring water security for the rural areas. As per 2017 statistics, 3.65 crore people live in rural areas and we want to ensure that the benefit reaches them,” he said.
According to him, it was decided to develop water grid in four districts of Rayalaseema (Kadapa, Kurnool, Anantapur, Chittoor) and Nellore district in PPP (Hybrid Annuity Model) mode at the cost of Rs 9,400 crore and in the remaining 8 districts it would be taken up with government funding and bank loans. “Banks like Vijaya Bank, Punjab and Sindh Bank, Canara Bank, Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank have come forward to lend while 25 companies have given their expression of interest. APCOST has prepared DPR for Srikakulam, Godavari districts, Krishna,” he said and added that there was no compromise on the quality.
The Chief Minister maintained that their top priority was to ensure water security for the state and in that direction irrigation projects and water resources would be completed and developed at a fast pace. Government would spend Rs 52,000 crore and more, if necessary. He said the target was to ensure construction of 6-7 reservoirs per district as a permanent solution for water problems.
Stating that completion of 18 lakh houses by next January was the target, he said three times a year house warming programmes would be held.
The Chief Minister said Aadarana II was another important decision taken to benefit 124 BC communities who are dependent on traditional occupations. ‘State-level conventions and exhibitions will be conducted to elicit their opinions and requirements and accordingly new tools and implements would be provided. Cloud Hub Policy 2018-2020 was another important Cabinet decision taken to make the state as the world-class cloud computing hub. Elaborating on it, the Chief Minister said in order to attract large-scale investments in the emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Big Data, the new policy was formulated.
With regard to the demand for dearness allowance (DA) by the government employees, he said a decision in that regard would be taken in the next cabinet meeting. DA hike would put an additional burden of RS 1,100 crore on state exchequer. Asked about political alliances, he said a decision would be taken, when it’s time for elections. “My foremost concern is to protect the interests of the state and there is no compromise on it,” he said.