AP To Make Rythu Bharosa, Subsidy Payments Via RTGS

Following a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, the Andhra Pradesh cabinet today decided that the payments under the Rythu Bharosa scheme would be done through the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) mode.

It also decided that the same method would be used for the payments of input subsidies to the farmers of the state.

Transport Minister Perni Venkataramaiah, popularly known as Perni Nani, revealed the details of the cabinet decisions to the media during a press conference.

Nani said that besides taking decisions on the mode of the payment for various welfare schemes, the cabinet had also approved the ordinance for the establishment of the Andhra Pradesh Medical Education and Research Corporation, the AP Survey and Boundary Amendment Act, and the state's tourism policy.

He also revealed that the cabinet had decided to pay compensation to the victims of the recent cyclone, Nivar, by the end of December, and to establish 16 new medical colleges in the state.

"The cabinet has decided to allot Rs 16,000 crore for the all-round development of the state's medical colleges," Nani said.

The implementation of a watershed development scheme in six districts of the state was also approved in the meeting.

Elaborating on the decisions taken to help the farmers of the state, the minister said that the cabinet had decided to compensate the farmers who had lost their crops in the recent spate of bad weather last month. He also claimed that the government had already paid an input subsidy of Rs 1,200 crore which the preceding government had failed to do.

The issues of the distribution of house pattas and the construction of pucca houses under the YSR Congress government's housing scheme for the poor were also discussed.