VIJAYAWADA: By June 20, Godavari water will reach Krishna district through Pattiseema and will be released to Krishna delta downstream of Prakasam Barrage thereafter. Informing this to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu during the review meeting on Polavaram and other projects on Monday, the Water Resources Department officials said 16 out of 24 pumps in the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme have started functioning and water has been released from the project.
AP third in composite water management index
Principal Secretary (Irrigation) Shashi Bhushan informed the Chief Minister that NITI Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) ranked Andhra Pradesh in the third place in the country. “We are numero uno in 12 of the 28 indicators used to create the index. Every acre of our State should get water for irrigation,” the Chief Minister said.
He directed the officials concerned to analyse dry spells and mitigation methods. He said completing the priority projects is only one part of the mission. “We must also be experts in water management, spreading awareness on water harnessing, optimisation of the deployment of our current tools like rain guns and micro-irrigation tanks and ensuring maximum yield in agriculture,” he explained.
Officials were asked to issue an order stating that sinking of borewells for agriculture purpose will not be allowed in areas with groundwater more than 35 metres below. The CM also stressed the need for improving the groundwater levels in the State.
After virtually inspecting the ongoing works of Polavaram project for the 64th time, the Chief Minister said the overall progress of 55.38% has been achieved in the project. According to officials, 75.2% of the excavation for the spillway and spill channel has been completed, i.e., 838.80 lakh cubic metres out of 1,115.59 lakh cubic metres of the earth has been excavated. This week, against a target of 11.76 lakh cubic metres, 3.02 lakh cubic metres of earthwork was excavated for the spill channel, pilot channel, spillway, left bank and approach channel.
The officials informed that 26.1% of the concreting for the spillway, stilling basin and spill channel is completed, accounting for a total of 9.6 lakh cubic metres out of 36.79 lakh cubic metres. About 28,000 cubic metres of concrete was laid this week. Around 61.17% of the construction of radial gates have been completed with trunnion castings and trunnion pins being the only remaining components. The Chief Minister then briefly reviewed the progress of the 54 priority projects with all the Engineers-in-Chief through a video conference. “You must ensure that at least by July, all 54 projects are ready to start functioning, and help make the State ready for the upcoming rains,” he said.
Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Principal Secretary G Sai Prasad and Special Chief Secretary M Ravichandra were present at the meeting. Earlier, in a teleconference with officials over the progress of various works under Neeru-Pragathi, Naidu said that now the country would take notice of the progress achieved by the State in water management, agriculture, and horticulture after his speech on the issue in the Niti Aayog meet.
FP dealers told to improve services
Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu held a teleconference with 9,000 fair price shop dealers from the Real-Time Governance Centre and expressed displeasure over dealers as the public satisfaction with FP shops was not up to the mark. He warned of taking action against the dealers if there was no improvement in their services.
Satisfaction levels
90 per cent Public satisfaction the civil supplies department is expected to achieve
75 per cent Public satisfied with Civil Supplies department
32 per cent People complained of irregularities in weighing commodities in FP shops