With the industrialists and NRIs showing interest, many villages and municipal wards in Nellore district are all set to get the ‘smart concept’ advantage wherein they will enjoy well-developed basic facilities like roads, drinking water supply, schools and so on.
The district officials have drawn elaborate plans for pushing the smart concept among the donors, especially sons of the soil prospering elsewhere in the country and the world. This is in view of the fact that they would be interested in making good contributions to the growth of their native places.
Accordingly, for the benefit of interested people, all information regarding the present conditions in over 940 villages and 240 wards would be posted on the Andhra Pradesh government website soon. The adoption of villages and wards is being encouraged by the government under the ‘Smart AP’ programme which is aimed at developing smart villages and wards in a big way. Besides basic amenities, maintenance of high levels of cleanliness and sanitation also assume greater importance under this drive.
During their visits to rural areas , Collector M. Janaki and Joint Collector Imthiaz Ahmed are making it a point to enquire about basic amenities in villages. The officials down the line are instructed to gather data about the requirements for making the smart concept workable with information about this being made easily available for the probable donors.
After Puttamraju Kandriga, village in the district, hit headlines following adoption by the cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, the concept of developing rural areas with active participation of people’s representatives got a fillip in these areas. Several MPs and MLAs have also come forward to adopt villages with this inspiration.
Along similar lines, island village Irukam and mainland villages like Pallipadu await immediate participation of well-to-do people and public representatives to take up their development under smart concept. The officials said once the developmental works under this concept started in villages on a large-scale, it would create greater scope for creating employment for rural workers and agricultural labourers. This would help in poverty alleviation to a large extent.
