Bhadrachalam was one of the biggest Schedule Tribe areas in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state, with all tribal developmental activities co-ordinated by the Project Officer, Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA)  as the Single Authority under the Single Line Administration GO issued by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. G.Asok Kumar was the PO, ITDA in 1996-98 period when Andhra Pradesh Participatory Tribal Development  Programme  (APPTDP) funded by IFAD was initiated.

Under the Andhra Pradesh Participatory Tribal Development Programme (APPTDP), Village Tribal Development Associations (VTDAs) were to be formed in all the villages selected under the program and all activities were to be routed through the respective VTDAs for their total involvement.  Over 400 VTDAs were formed in the project area, after strengthening community mobilization and building their capacity to effectively play its role. He organized about 200 training classes and 25 exposure visits for the office bearers of the VTDAs and thrift groups as a part of their capacity-building program. He brought out informative journals for the use of the community and to make administration more transparent.

During his tenure, with the active involvement of VTDA members and total participation of the community 132 minor irrigation tanks, 94 lift irrigation schemes, 67 irrigation bore wells were completed which helped to bring over 3500 acres of land under irrigation. These brought about very significant changes in the living conditions of the Tribals and the Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) living in the project area. The expenditure under APPTDP increased from Rs 57 lakhs in 1995-96 and Rs 327 lakhs in 1996-97 to Rs 570 lakhs in 97-98  due to

(a) making  people actively participate in all stages- planning, selection of beneficiaries, implementation, and monitoring

 (b) regular monitoring of the progress of the schemes using computer software (in 1996!)

(c) increased awareness and transparency brought in through regular meetings with them and dissemination of information through journals like “Sabari Sravanti” and “Spurthi” published by the ITDA 

(d) involvement of all through the conduct of regular Governing Body meetings.

All village action plans were prepared with the active involvement of the villagers by using the PRA techniques extensively. For this capacity building trainings were taken up for all the staff and for the VTDA chairmen and liaison workers.

Using the VTDAs and the thrift groups under it, we had started the implementation of cooked mid-day meals in schools in 1996, much before the mid-day meals program of the Government of India.

The lessons learnt in the APPTDP led to the formation of AP Rural Poverty Initiative Program (APRPIP)  etc later.