HYDERABAD:For the time being, there is only one project for the Irrigation Department to focus on in the State — the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS). The State is spending majority of its budgetary allocation on KLIS while facing a “paucity of funds” for other projects.
Though the irrigation sector had been accorded ‘top priority’ and a whopping Rs 25,000 crore was allocated for the same in the 2017-18 Budget, the government spending so far has been only around Rs 12,000-Rs 13,000 crore. Sources say this is because of the performance of the State Budget. While revenue generation in the State has been on expected lines — tax revenue growth has been over 18 per cent — the State government is finding it difficult to meet obligatory expenditures like social security pensions and employees’ salaries.
As a result, it has not been able to release sufficient funds to the irrigation sector. Working in such a scenario, the Irrigation department has prioritised its projects accordingly. “We are prioritising projects that can immediately supply water to farmers,” an official told Express on the condition of anonymity.The projects that have moved to the back burner are: Palamuru-Rangareddy, Dindi and a few others. Sources say that about Rs 12,000-Rs 13,000 crore has been spent on Kaleshwaram and other ongoing projects.
“The spending, till February-end, is around Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 13,000 crore on irrigation projects. The department has to pay around Rs 5,000 crore to the contracting agencies. We also are yet to pay about Rs 1,500 crore for the land acquisition,” sources in Irrigation department said. However, the State government spent Rs 5,000 crore on Kaleshwaram project with the support of lenders. If the government paid Rs 5,000 crore bills, even then, total expenditure of irrigation department will not cross 78 per cent of the total Rs 22,365 crore allocated for major and minor irrigation departments. The spendings on irrigation sector in 2016-17 too was in a similar fashion. As a result, budget estimates of Rs 24,132 crore were revised as Rs 14,558 crore.But, sources said that the less spending on projects will not have an adverse impact on TRS.
