Naidu to em'power' tribal women

Using his innovative skills yet again in devising novel election eve schemes, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced mini hydel units for tribal women.

The scheme, one of the first of its kind in the world, will also see the setting up of a separate power company called TRIPCO (Tribal Power Company) for power generation and trading by the respective tribal women groups who manage the mini hydel units.

Briefing the media after a cabinet meeting yesterday, the chief minister said that about 16 mini hydel units would be set up in the tribal areas under the management of mandal level federations of DWCRA (Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas) groups utilising a Rs 45 crore grant from the Government of India with the state government additionally providing around Rs 9 crore in subsidies.

The scheme would ensure that each future shareholder represented by the women self-help groups (SHGs) would earn at least Rs 1,000 per month, Naidu said.

Under the initiative of the union ministry of non-conventional energy sources, the central government will provide a Rs 3-crore grant for setting up a one-megawatt hydro power unit costing about Rs 4.5 crore to Rs 5 crore.

Another Rs 50-60 lakh would be provided towards the project cost from 'Velugu', a World Bank-funded poverty alleviation scheme, and the remaining money would be mobilised from the shareholders and via borrowings.

Though the provision for grants by the Government of India scheme has been available for a long time, AP is the first state to utilise the funds, Naidu said.

Each of the one-megawatt units are expected to generate about Rs 62 lakh in income at an operating efficiency level of 65 per cent. The upper limit of the number of shareholders to each project, the price of each share and other technicalities would be worked out in the near future, Naidu said, adding that the scheme could be extended to non-tribal areas of the state by involving the Chief Minister's Empowerment of Youth scheme and other SHGs.

Under the mini-hydel-to-tribal women scheme, only one-megawatt units would be set up in the first phase though some of the locations identified for this purpose have an estimated capacity of around three megawatt.

Two units of three megawatt and two megawatt were proposed near Lower Sileru Power House in Bhadrachalam Integrated Tribal Development Agency, seven units with the capacity ranging from one megawatt to three megawatt are proposed in R C Varam ITDA, six units with capacity ranging from one megawatt to 3.5 mw capacity are proposed in the Paderu ITDA and a 0.7 mw unit is proposed to be set up near Seethampet village in Srikakulam district.

The cabinet also approved a Rs 1,000-croreYouth Empowerment Policy under which a state level youth empowerment commission will be constituted to devise, execute and monitor employment and empowerment programmes for youth.

Incubators, venture capital and seed capital would be provided to support and guide the selected entrepreneurs and projects. "The growth of the economy is directly linked to the size of the youth involved in productive activities. The growth rate of the European economy has stagnated because of the age factor of their societies. We, along with China, have a great potential of youth power which should be put to 100 per cent use. The philosophy and the idea behind bringing out a comprehensive youth policy, which is also the first comprehensive endeavour in the entire country, is exactly this," Naidu said.