Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Sunday launched a mass-contact programme named `Praja Patham` (on people`s path), at Nakkapalli village in the district.
"Praja Patham is an interface between the people, their elected representatives and a team of public servants to address the problems concerning drinking water, MNREGA, power, rural employment among others. The programme would be held till May five covering around 22,888 villages and 5,000 municipal wards in the state" Reddy said.
The government would increase the minimum wage of workers to Rs 137 a day from Rs 121 under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNERGA) and is also planning incentives to the workers during summer, he said.
The state government has already released Rs 45 crore to all districts for providing drinking water and would release another Rs 60 crore. An amount of Rs 1,814 crore has been released as input subsidy for farmers, the chief minister said.
He also informed that the Congress government will take all necessary steps to run medical emergency services in the state.
Observing that the prolonged strike last year in support of separate Telangana demand and lack of adequate rains in the state hit power generation hard, Reddy said the government was trying to meet the demand by purchasing power from other states and to supply 7-hour free power to farmers.
Reddy said the government would sanction around Rs 11,500 crore to women as loan.
He said government would take decision on tenders for multi-purpose Polavaram irrigation project within two days.
PTI
