Indira Soura Giri Jala Vikasam and Rajiv Yuva Vikasam schemes yet to take off

Despite grand launches, Telangana’s Rajiv Yuva Vikasam and Indira Soura Giri Jala Vikasam schemes have struggled to take off. The youth-focused financial aid programme has yet to disburse funds to selected beneficiaries, while the tribal irrigation initiative faces logistical and ecological challenges. Five months on, both schemes remain largely unimplemented, leaving intended beneficiaries disillusioned.

Hyderabad: The Indira Soura Giri Jala Vikasam and Rajiv Yuva Vikasam schemes were launched amidst much fanfare in Telangana by the Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy. But, even after five months, the two schemes have not taken off as desired by the Congress government.

While, Rajiv Yuva Vikasam scheme was formally launched on April 11, the Indira Soura Giri Jala Vikasam was launched on May 19. As part of Rajiv Yuva Vikasam, financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh was to be offered to unemployed youth. About 4,000 to 5,000 youth were expected to benefit from each constituency.

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Initially, the State government announced that sanction letters were to be offered to the beneficiaries under the scheme from June 2 to 9 in all assembly constituencies, followed by training programmes from June 10 to 15 and eventually implementation of the scheme from June 15.

Under the scheme, nearly 16 lakh applications were submitted by the youth. According to sources, the government had selected five lakh beneficiaries, whose loan component was less than Rs 1 lakh.

It was decided by the government that a thorough scrutiny of applications was essential. However, it has been nearly five months, and there is no announcement from the government about extending assistance to unemployed youth, who now feel dejected.

Similarly, the Indira Soura Giri Jala Vikasam was launched with much ado on May 19 in Achampet. The scheme was aimed at ensuring a comprehensive development of the Recognition of Forest Rights lands pertaining to 2.10 lakh ST title deed holders covering six lakh acres.

The government announced the launch of the scheme with an outlay of Rs 12,600 crore with a unit cost of Rs 6 lakh under STSDF for a period of five years on a 100 per cent subsidy basis.

ST farmers holding RoFR patta land, any other ST farmers having patta land other than RoFR claim inside forest areas were eligible for installation of the solar pump set (off-grid) based irrigation facility. These pumps were to be used exclusively for horticulture crops.

However, save for grounding a few units, the Tribal Welfare department could not implement the scheme effectively in the State for different reasons.

To begin with, ST farmers possess RoFR pattas mostly in terrains and hilly areas, and the availability of water was a challenge in those areas. This apart, the forest department is apprehensive that in the guise of cultivating horticulture crops, farmers might occupy more forest lands. In addition to this, forest officials are also worried that using solar pumps could impact water availability for wild animals.

Further, there was a probability of using the solar pumps for cultivating commercial crops along with horticulture crops. Amidst all these concerns, the scheme did not take off as desired by the government.