States should take Central schemes to poor: Giriraj

Tirupati: Centre is implementing a slew of welfare schemes and the State governments on their part should play key role in taking the schemes to the needy poor to avail the benefits which in turn pave the way for Grama Swarajya, said Union Minister for Panchayat Raj (PR) and Rural Development (RD) Giriraj Singh.

The Union Minister along with Tirupati MP Dr M Gurumurthy and member PC Rayalu and State and district officials on Saturday reviewed the implementation of the PR and RD schemes in the erstwhile Chittoor district here on Saturday.

Survey and Land Record Commissioner Sidharth Jain informed the Union Minister that under SWAMITVA Yojana the resurvey of agriculture lands and also lands categorised as Grama Kantam were taken up in 17,000 villages in which 13,000 will be completed using latest facilities like drones and imaging while the records pertaining to 4,000 villages in which the survey was completed, the relevant records pertaining to the lands will be handed over to authorities concerned and also linked with the sub-registrar offices.

The Union Minister said that the ultimate aim of SVAMITVA is to ensure a dispute-free and pucca unique ID number to the lands in the village which will be linked with all the departments concerned including revenue, banks, court and sub-registrar offices which would go a long way in ensuring a transparent land records benefitting scores of farmers and rural people. Stating that such a system of providing a unique ID number to each title of the lands was nowhere in the world, he said this will enable the much needed access to the people to verify the details of the land records.

With regard to the watershed programme, he said 370 projects were taken up in AP, adding that under phase one 13.62 lakh hectares will be covered resulting in the water table getting significantly increased, ranging from 1.5 metres to 4.40 metres. The programme is a boon to water-stressed and drought prone areas, he said, seeking the officials to focus on promoting it in a big way. Cultivation of drought-resistant crops and plants like cactus will facilitate methane generation, the Minister said. He sought the officials to complete the construction of houses in rural areas under the PM housing programme and also construction of roads to the targeted 1,140 km under Grameena Sadak Yojana by March 2024.

Officials informed the Union Minister that Aadhaar seeding of the beneficiaries of employment guarantee scheme was completed 99 per cent while in the implementation of Amrutha Sarovar, the State registered a spectacular performance completing 2,960 works against the target which is 1,950. Under the employment guarantee scheme, plantation of fruit bearing trees, which have more demand in the market, were taken up, the officials said while explaining the execution of various rural development and panchayat raj schemes sponsored by the Centre.