Farm hands are now proud farm owners

NELLORE: Venkamma, a middle-aged farm hand in Gudladinne village of Kaligiri mandal had never expected that one day she will be called a farmer.Today, Venkamma is proud owner of a land, thanks to Indira Jala Prabha, the comprehensive land development programme (CLDP) of the state government.Mastanamma of Venkatapuram village of Marripadu mandal, another farm hand, says that for generations, they have remained farm hands and that they had not even dreamt of owing even a cent."Today, we are happy to be owners of our own lands. We are happier that the fate of our children will not be same as ours and now, they too can call themselves farmers and have a better life than ours," a happy Mastanamma proudly says.Like Venkamma and Mastanamma, there are several other women who have become proud owners of farm lands in the district. "The programme started with an intention to make the landless poor farm land owners and make them utilise those lands to improve their livelihood," says DWMA project director M Yugandhar Kumar. According to him, Nellore district has been sanctioned Rs. 41 crore under the CLDP, of which `6 crore has been sanctioned from the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF)-9, Rs. 27 crore from RIDF-10, Rs. 6 crore from RIDF-13 and Rs. 2.96 crore from RIDF-15."In all 15,500 acres of land have been distributed to 13,027 beneficiaries, of which 7,357 are SCs, 2,952 are STs, 2,162 are BCs and 556 are others.All lands given are cultivated in groups and presently, 5,450 acres in 60 blocks are under cultivation while efforts are on to start cultivation in the remaining acres of land," he said.Kumar admitted that the works under CLDP are moving at a snail's pace due to delay in release of funds from NABARD."Project facilitation teams have been set up to expedite the works," he said.