The chief minister announced free power supply to the farmers immediately after taking over the reins of the state, thus fulfilling his election promise to the farmers. On the free power supply to the farmers, the CM said his government has implemented free power supply scheme in the agriculture sector successfully and would continue to do so in future. He said, his government would give presentation to the central planning commission on the successful implementation of the scheme . The centre and the world bank had earlier expressed their apprehensions when the state government decided to supply free power to farmers in the agricultural sector with a view to provide irrigated water to remote areas in the state, but the government facilitated the process transparently. Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy said due to the free power supply to agriculture sector, the food grains production has increased in the state. The chief minister said, his government would implement the crop insurance scheme in all the districts which consider village as a unit. Earlier this scheme was implemented only in 10 districts considering the rainfall and agricultural output in a mandal. The CM said, the new method would help every farmer to recover from crop loss arising out of floods, drought or any other calamity. Dr Reddy said, AP would witness a second green revolution by Sankranti 2009 because of various programmes initiated by his government. Meanwhile, the president of India Ms Pratibha Patil who was in the state capital for her winter break has appreciated YSR government initiatives with regard to the payment of compensation to farmers whose land was acquired for special economic zones and rural health.

He launched several irrigation projects under the ‘Jalayagnam’ and insisted in maintenance of quality in design, construction and material used in irrigation projects. He asked his ministers to focus on development and extensively tour their native districts. On a tour to the United States of America, Dr Reddy was invited by the California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for a meeting. Speaking on the occasion, the actor turned governor complimented the CM and said, “you are a blend of a farmer, but a modern administrator and astatute politician. That is wanted in an agrarian economy particularly in a developing democratic country like India. You are doing very well on the farm, water and irrigation front.”

The chief minister launched the state government’s prestigious ‘INDIRAMMA pathakam’. The scheme is intended to provide basic amenities to the 1/3 of the villages and 1/3 of the wards in the urban areas.

Another prestigious scheme taken up by Dr YSR is the ‘land distribution scheme’ to the poor people belonging to SC, ST & BC categories. So far the government has distributed 4.37 lakh acres of land in 3 phases. The pattas of the land will be given in the name of a woman member in the beneficiaries family.

The government launched ‘Rajiv Gruhakalpa’ scheme with a commitment of constructing 6.60 lakhs houses per year at the cost of Rs 75,000 with the beneficiary contributing 10% of the cost and the rest in the form of loan repayable in 20 years.

Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy launched ‘Pavala Vaddi’ scheme to provide interest subsidy to self help groups. The scheme is applicable to all loans extended by banks on or after July, 2004, under the SHG bank linkage programme. The incentive will be in the form of reimbursement of interest whatever is above 3% irrespective of the bank interest.

The chief minister launched ‘Rajiv Arogya Sri’, a health insurance scheme to provide free medical treatment to the poor and the downtrodden.About 1.82 crore people holding white ration cards are assured under the scheme. The scheme covers health insurance, in cases of cancer, heart, kidneys, neurology and trauma. The Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh was all priase for Dr Reddy’s pet scheme ‘Arogya Sri’ and wanted to implement the health insurance scheme at the national level.

The chief minister launched ‘Bala Sahyoga scheme’ for the comprehensive care and moral support to the children who are infected with HIV (Human immuno virus) or with fully blown AIDS. The project aimed at improving the quality of life of children infected with HIV/fully blown AIDS and their families. There are about 20,000 children effected by the dreaded disease. The scheme is launched with a corpus of $ 14 million given jointly by the children’s investment fund foundation (CIFF) of UK and Sir Elton John AIDS foundation.

The youth are always important to Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy as he himself started as a student leader while studying at MR Medical college, Gulbarga in Karnataka. He was the president of the student union there. Dr YSR has been working seriously on youth employment. In fact, he has decided to observe 2008 as the year of employment generation. The chief minister explaining the spirit behind the move, has said his government has focussed on irrigation and agriculture in the first two years while welfare and health were given top priority in the third year.

‘The Andhra Pradesh Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme’ (under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), the scheme is guaranteed a minimum of 100 days of wage employment to every rural household each year. The Tata consultancy services has developed the web enabled information and communication technology solutions which will go live to all the Mandals across the state. The state government has collaborated with TCS to created automated solution to implement the scheme efficiently. One lakh new jobs would be created in the government sector alone, said the CM. The government will build a movement to achieve the goal of eradicating unemployment and Rs 1,000 cr would be spent for the youth employment. The chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy was appreciated by the planning commission deputy chairman MS Ahluwalia and called Dr YSR the ‘poster boy’ of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Whatever, projects, be it power, irrigation, agriculture or schemes like Indiramma housing, Rajiv Gruhakalpa, Pavala vaddi runalu, old age pensions, Rajiv Arogya Sri, Indira Kranti Pathakam, Rajiv Yuvashakti, free land distribution and the educational schemes among other welfare schemes, the chief minister is working very hard to fulfil his dream of making the state Haritandhra Pradesh.

Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy has impressed and attracted the attention of the nation and the world. He has always emphasised on the development of the rural economy and championed the cause of the common man making him the most successful congress chief minister in the country.