HYDERABAD: Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Thursday instructed the officials to make all necessary arrangements for the launch of the Indira Solar Giri Water Development Scheme by Chief Minister Anumula Revanth Reddy at Mannanur in the Achampet constituency on May 18.
During a review meeting with senior officials, the deputy CM said that the scheme is being launched with a Rs 12,600 crore budget to bring lands allotted to tribal communities under the RoFR Act into cultivation and to empower them economically.
“The government considers it as a prestigious scheme. It will be launched in the presence of CM Revanth Reddy and all his Cabinet colleagues,” he said.
Over the next five years, the scheme is expected to supply irrigation water to six lakh acres, benefiting around 2.1 lakh tribal farmers, he said and added: “This scheme comes as a blessing for tribal farmers who have been waiting for decades for electricity to cultivate their podu lands, as forest department permissions had long hindered electricity supply to these areas.”
Vikramarka said that officers from ITDA projects, electricity and horticulture departments would play a key role in implementation of the scheme.
He suggested cultivation of crops such as avocado, bamboo, pomegranate, dragon fruit, and fig, and advised that awareness programmes be conducted for tribal farmers about these crops.
He also recommended organising study tours to states where such crops are cultivated.