Thiruvananthapuram: Without wells, agriculture projects find few takers

Thiruvananthapuram: Some of the agriculture projects in Thiruvananthapuram corporation have not been getting beneficiaries because the city does not have many open wells. Now, the agriculture officials say that the wards away from the city centre might have eligible beneficiaries. Wards like Trikkannapuram, Tirumala, Punnakkamugal and Mudavanmugal will have takers for its agriculture projects, they say.

Apart from Jalasamruddhi, which is a project which offers up to Rs 10,000 for digging a new open well, a new project called Haritha Bhavan makes it mandatory for beneficiaries to have open wells.

The corporation has set apart Rs 15,58,500 for the Haritha Bhavan project. Anyone who has 10 cents of land and an open well will get 100 percent subsidy on planting 'kuttikkurumulaku', vegetable saplings and tuber cropping materials. In addition, the beneficiary would get support for well recharge and setting up a ring compost.

Some 10 people have signed an agreement for the Haritha Bhavan project, though 51 had given the application. The corporation has set apart money to support at least 150 beneficiaries. They have decided to make a supplementary list as they expect at least 100 beneficiaries.

For Jalasamriddhi, only 6 turned up, though corporation has set apart Rs 4 lakh for the project to benefit 20 people. Corporation officials say that by the next ward sabha there will be more people. The corporation has been trying to attract city residents to agriculture. Every year they find a lot of takers for the grow bag projects. There are 351 applications this year, and the civic body hopes that it will benefit 500 applicants.