Kurnool: Small farmers in dry land told to avail borewell scheme

Kurnool: District Collector G Veera Pandiyan accompanied with the MLAs of Kurnool, Kodumuru, Panyam, Srisailam and Pathikonda constituencies flagged off the borewell drilling vehicles from STBC College grounds on Monday. Prior to the flagging off, all of them along with some farmers have participated in an official launching programme of YSR Jala Kala by the Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy from Velagapudi through video conference at the Collectorate.

Addressing the occasion, Veera Pandiyan said the YSR Jala Kala scheme was aimed to benefit the small and marginal farmers. Under the scheme, those farmers, who want borewell should have a minimum of 2.5 acre land and should not exceed 5 acres.

If a farmer does not have a minimum of 2.5 acre land then he can add some other farmers to dig the borewell. But prior to digging, he has to apply through volunteers at the village secretariat. The government officials would conduct a survey of water availability and all expenses would be borne by the government, said the collector.

He further said that after completion of survey, the government will sanction power connection free of cost that include fixation of meters.

By fixing meters, he said qualitative power could be supplied and to cut off low voltage problems. The bills generated out of the power consumption would be directly credited into the accounts of farmers. 10,000 MW solar power plant to be set up at the earliest. With the solar power a unit would be charged at Rs.2.30, stated the collector.

Several farmers that participated at the launching session have expressed their happiness for getting a borewell free of cost.