The Hindu : Velugu Phase II launch in sight

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 20, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Velugu Phase II launch in sight

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD March 19. The second phase of Velugu, a focussed Government programme funded by the World Bank to address poverty, is likely to be sanctioned by the month-end to cover 20 lakh families in 16 districts with an outlay of Rs. 1,486 crores.

The second phase will be implemented over a period of five years starting from June last year when the preparatory work in all the 16 districts commenced.

The work in 272 backward mandals of Adilabad, Mahbubnagar, Anantapur, Chittoor, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram commenced in the first phase of the programme in June 2000. The second phase involves 548 mandals and villages inhabited by fishermen in the remaining 16 districts, according to a note on the demands for grants of the Panchayatraj Department for 2003-04 as tabled in the Assembly by the Minister concerned, N. Janardhan Reddy.

The note states that about 30 lakh poor families will be covered under both the phases in 820 mandals. The objective was to enable the rural poor in the State to improve their livelihood and quality of life.

A review of the performance of phase-I since its commencement in June 2000 showed that the benefits reached out to 4.72 lakh poor families in 12,759 remote habitations in the six districts. It helped strengthen 44,425 self-help groups (SHGs), 4,515 village organisations and 135 mandal samkhyas. As many as 17,771 SHGs have accessed credit from the banks. The rice credit line -- a community-based food security scheme -- has been implemented successfully with about 20,000 metric tonnes (MTs) of rice being distributed to 2.92 lakh poor families during the phase. As regards the preparatory work of the second phase which began in June last year, the note states that District Project Management Units have been established in all the 16 districts.

Half of the functional staff have already been positioned while the remaining half will be in place by March 31 when this phase will be grounded.

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