Date:15/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/15/stories/2006051510140400.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

State to get lion's share of fund for backward areas

Special Correspondent

The idea is to stamp out naxalism in affected districts: Mani Shankar Aiyar

CELEBRATION TIME: APCC president K. Keshava Rao, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Union Ministers Mani Shankar Aiyar, M.M. Pallam Raju and T. Subbarami Reddy at the APCC plenary in Hyderabad on Sunday. — Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: Union Minister for Panchayat Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar has assured the lion's share to the State from the Central Government fund of Rs. 5,000 crores earmarked for backward areas development during the current year.

He also promised that the State would be the first beneficiary of the scheme, aimed at weaning away naxalites. "A massive amount of money to stamp out naxalism would be spent in districts identified with the problem," he said inaugurating the plenary of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee here on Sunday.

Scheme for weavers

Mr. Aiyar added that the Centre was at an advanced stage of formulating a major welfare programme for weavers. It would supplement the programmes already taken up by State Government.

The Union Minister said the joint statement of conclusion signed by him with Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy recently to improve the functioning of Panchayat Raj institutions could become the basis of the manifesto for the coming panchayat polls.

He wanted the APCC to simplify the document so that the villagers comprehended it easily. It could also highlight how local bodies were `marginalised' by the Janmabhoomi programme of the TDP.

Janmabhoomi was designed to empower nodal agencies in-charge of rural development while the joint statement took into account the interests of local bodies. Janmabhoomi spelt disaster to the Telugu Desam but the statement was bound to bring success to the Congress not only in the coming polls but the Assembly and Parliament polls to follow later, he said.

Former Chief Minister N. Janardhan Reddy asked the Government to ponder how Panchayatraj bodies could be run more effectively by a democratic process. Finance Minister K. Rosaiah said TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu had not yet recovered from the shock of defeat in the last general elections.

Mr. Janardhan Reddy, Sports Minister, M. Satyanarayana Rao, and Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumantha Rao said they were proved wrong in their apprehensions about the free power policy of Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy.