The Rajiv Arogyasri scheme has come as a boon for the poverty stricken parents of seven-year-old Lavanya of Sanjeevapuram in Bukkara-yasamudram mandal. The little girl was suffering from congenital cardiac problems and her parents, Mr Thimmappa and Ms Bhagyalakshmi, did not have the Rs 1,00,000 required to repair her heart valves through surgery. They had almost given up hope when thy learnt that they could avail the benefits of the Arogyasri scheme. Thanks to the scheme, Lavanya was operated upon successfully and has got a new lease of life. "We thank both the government and God,' say her parents. "This scheme will dispel darkness from the lives of scores of poor people,' they added. Similar is the story of Ms Lakshmi Devi, 45, of Narpala village, who was suffering from breast cancer. Both she and her husband were agricultural labourers and did not have the funds to undertake costly treatment. Here too, the state government's Arogyasri programme came in handy. A breast surgery was performed on Ms Lakshmi Devi at NIMS, Hyderabad, and she is now recovering. In fact, 4,031 expensive surgeries were performed in Anantapur district during the past one year under the scheme. For the rural or urban poor, getting treatme-nt in corporate hospitals for their ailments was unthinkable until the government launched the scheme. "More than Rs 20 crore had been spent in the district in 2007-08,' said Mr Da-modar, coordinator of the scheme. "Srikakulam occupies the second position with 4,104 beneficiaries.' The first phase of the scheme was implemented in Anantapur, Srikakulam, Chittoor, East and West Godavari, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts. In the second phase Kadapa, Medak, Karimnagar, Prakasam and Nellore have started implementing the scheme from April 1.