HYDERABAD: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday instructed officials to complete the land acquisition process for Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) on war footing.
He also directed the officials to expedite construction of irrigation projects in the erstwhile Mahbubnagar district.
During a meeting with ministers and MLAs from the erstwhile Mahbubnagar district, the chief minister reviewed the progress and status of works on projects, including PRLIS.
Emphasising that land acquisition for other projects too should be completed expeditiously, he said that the government will release required funds for the purpose. He also clarified that all pending bills for the projects would be cleared at the earliest.
Revanth Reddy also instructed the district ministers to conduct reviews with the officials concerned on irrigation projects in their respective districts and to continuously monitor the progress of these projects.
Ministers Jupally Krishna Rao and Vakiti Srihari, Government Whip Yennam Srinivas Reddy, MLAs Kasireddy Narayana Reddy, Madhusudan Reddy, Megha Reddy, Rajesh Reddy, Vamsi Krishna, Veerlapalli Shankarayya, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao and other officials attended in the meeting.
Govt prioritising projects in Mahbubnagar: Uttam
Later in the day, the people’s representatives met Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy at the Secretariat. During the meeting, Uttam said that state government has accorded top priority to irrigation projects in the Mahbubnagar district.
The minister assured them that the progress of the Palamuru irrigation projects was being closely monitored and that sustained efforts were underway to resolve bottlenecks affecting execution of these projects.
“Projects in Mahbubnagar region are being treated on par with major priority schemes such as Devadula, SLBC and Sita Rama projects. All efforts are being made to complete them at the earliest,” he said.
The minister said that the Congress government was committed to correcting the injustice done to the Palamuru region during the BRS regime. He assured the MLAs that another review meeting on Palamuru projects would be convened within a fortnight to reassess priorities and accelerate project implementation.
Highlighting the importance of the Jurala project, Uttam said that the government was taking steps to address severe sedimentation issues that had reduced the reservoir’s storage capacity to below eight TMC.
He said proposals had already been submitted to the Ministry of Jal Shakti to consider Jurala project for assistance under the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP). The minister expressed confidence that desilting works under DRIP would significantly improve dam safety, storage capacity and operational efficiency of the Jurala reservoir.
BRS claims a myth, misleading narrative
Dismissing BRS claims that 90 per cent of works on PRLIS were completed as a “myth and a misleading narrative”, he observed that the project had suffered major setbacks after the off-take point was shifted from Jurala to the Srisailam reservoir during the previous regime. He further pointed out that tenders called by the BRS government for distributor network did not help the project as the land acquisition process for the canal system was not completed. It led to implementation hurdles, he said.
Directing officials to prepare a comprehensive report detailing the progress of works and priority-wise execution schedules for all ongoing projects in the region, the minister ordered that desilting works at minor irrigation tanks are completed on fast-track mode.
Officials were also asked to undertake urgent canal repairs and improve water distribution infrastructure ahead of the monsoon season.
He informed the meeting that Phase-I of PRLIS envisages drinking water supply to 1,226 villages across six districts of Nagarkurnool, Mahbubnagar, Narayanpet, Vikarabad, Rangareddy and Nalgonda.