Cabinet revives 13,252 rural water works for about ₹4,053 crore under JJM 2.0

Andhra Pradesh’s Cabinet on 3 September 2026, chaired by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, put rural drinking water back on a multi-thousand-crore track. It decided to revive and rationalise 13,252 rural water works at about ₹4,053 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0.

The rationalisation arithmetic is specific. Some 13,247 single-village schemes are to be reworked into 7,439 schemes at ₹3,046 crore. Five multi-village schemes get ₹1,007 crore for 334 villages. An earlier Government Order — GO Ms 94 dated 22 July 2026 — covering 2,943 works worth ₹1,811 crore is cancelled. The Cabinet is therefore both expanding a JJM 2.0 envelope and deleting a July package that no longer fits the rationalised design.

Farm-market and power items filled the same docket. The Cabinet approved ₹94 crore to AP MARKFED, including ₹10 per kg Price Deficiency Support as direct benefit transfer for 94 million kg of low or off-style tobacco in the 2026 season, plus MARKFED working capital for Totapuri mango support in 2026-27. It extended a ₹950 crore government guarantee to PFC for an APTRANSCO medium-term loan, and APGENCO corporate guarantees of ₹500 crore to PFC and ₹550 crore to REC for APPDCL loans. Polavaram hydroelectric plant electrical-and-mechanical / hydro-mechanical price variation on NHPC methodology, about ₹558 crore including GST, was taken up for consideration. The 800 MW Avuku pumped-storage project allotment to RVR Projects under GO 62 dated 28 July 2025 was cancelled.

Disaster and land items closed the list. Seventy-eight flood restoration works in Krishna, NTR, Guntur and Bapatla districts were cleared for ₹624.88 lakh. Industrial land assignments included 18.20 acres at Vavil Thota and 50.56 acres at Pogurupalle in Chittoor for industrial and MSME use, and 25 acres at Duvvur in YSR Kadapa for solar under PM-KUSUM. A new veterinary dispensary was approved at Achchammakunta in Macherla mandal, covering about 12,648 livestock.

What the locked facts do not show is a village-wise commissioning calendar or a tobacco farmer enrolment count already completed. Established: 13,252 works / about ₹4,053 crore; 7,439 SVS at ₹3,046 crore; five MVS at ₹1,007 crore for 334 villages; cancellation of GO Ms 94; MARKFED ₹94 crore and ₹10/kg PDS; power guarantees; Polavaram HEP variation ₹558 crore incl. GST under consideration; Avuku PSP cancellation; ₹624.88 lakh flood works; the Chittoor and Kadapa land parcels; Achchammakunta vet dispensary.

Rural taps, tobacco cheques, power guarantees and a cancelled pumped-storage allotment in one Cabinet day is how a state government signals priorities under drought pressure. The water line is the headline: fewer single-village schemes, more rationalised coverage, and a four-thousand-crore JJM 2.0 claim that will be tested only when the cancelled July works stop and the new schemes actually pump.