VIJAYAWADA: Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao has said that the department has won 19 Skoch Awards in various categories for its work in the irrigation sector. The 19 awards include the prestigious Skoch Platinum State of the Year Award and National Significance Award.
Speaking in a press meet here on Sunday, the minister said that nine projects and initiatives including Pattiseema, Purushothapatnam, Muchumarri, Gandikota- CBR, real-time monitoring of groundwater levels, Neeru-Chettu, Andhra Pradesh Water Resource Information System, revival of defunct lift irrigation scheme and web-based monitoring of lift irrigation schemes have won the awards in various categories.
“The awards stand as a testimony for our hard work in the last four years. The government has spent Rs 54,000 crore on irrigation projects since 2014. We have spent Rs14,000 crore on water conservation initiatives such as Neeru-Chettu, Neeru-Pragathi and others. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s determination to make the State drought-free has driven us to get a record 19 awards,” he said.
He further criticised the Opposition parties for their ‘ignorance’ about water resources and irrigation. “Skoch Group Chairman Sameer Kochhar said that he had never seen one department bagging these many awards in the entire history of the 52 summits held by the group. Our department deserved a standing ovation,” Devineni said.
“However, the Opposition leaders in our State are unable to recognise the efforts of the State government and are misleading the public by making baseless corruption allegations,” he added. The minister said that the awards would be shown to the CM during the 65th review on Polavaram project on Monday.