Here is a huge employment opportunity for at least 25,000 people to play pied piper. The Andhra Pradesh government wants them to catch rats in the fertile Godavari Delta, which is known as its rice bowl. The state’s agriculture department put out advertisements in English and Telugu newspapers announcing that for each dead rodent, the rat killer would be paid between Rs 10 and Rs 30, depending on its size. Altogether, the state is spending Rs 2 crore to cull rodents. This programme has been devised to reduce the rampant rodent menace. Every season, farmers themselves recruit these pied pipers, but this time the government has got involved in the  effort to showcase its programmes. Farmers had been offering incentives like liquor and chicken twice a week to rat catchers, with a caveat that they would have to be on the job 24/7.

This season, the task requires a minimum of five people for every 100 acres. Authorities first offered this job to the Yerukula tribal community in the district, but with few takers for village-wise contracts, advertisements were put out in newspapers.