HYDERABAD: Stating that his first priority would be to complete all the pending irrigation projects in Telangana, TRS chief and designated chief minister of Telangana state K Chandrasekhar Rao said on Sunday that his government would see that all the pending irrigation projects are completed in a time frame.
The TRS chief, who met irrigation experts comprising retired and working chief engineers at the party office on Sunday afternoon to know the status of the sector in Telangana and on what could be done to improve on it, told the engineers to help his government in completing all the pending projects.
He urged irrigation experts to complete all the irrigation projects, including the new one within 52 months. “I want you to start working from June 2, the Appointed Day. You forget about funds concentrate only on completion of projects.”
“Let us complete all the 26 pending projects in Telangana in two years’ time. For the completion of these projects Rs 18,000 crores will be needed and it would help in irrigating 24 lakh acres of land in Telangana. We have promised to provide water for 10 lakh acres of land in every district and this has to be done at any cost.” He said that officials should not worry about funds required for completion of irrigation projects as he would manage it from Centre and other financial institutions. “My government will allocate more than Rs 1 lakh crore for irrigation. I would see that there would not be any dearth of funds. If necessary, I would approach the World Bank and other international financial institutions. Irrigation experts should only concentrate on completion of the projects.”
He said that there was need to complete the Kalwakurthy lift irrigation scheme, Nettempadu lift irrigation scheme, Bheema lift irrigation project, Koilsagar lift irrigation project, Srisailam left bank canal (SLBC) and Devadula lift irrigation scheme on a war- footing.
Stressing the need to take up new irrigation projects on Godavari river, the TRS chief said that there was a need take up projects such as Kanthanapally lift irrigation Project in Warangal district, Inchampalli project in Karimnagar and Pranahita-Chevella project.
He said that there was also need to complete Dindi project in Nalgonda district in the next four years.
The TRS chief urged experts to give priority to the construction of minor irrigation tanks. “There were more than 33,000 chain link irrigation tanks in Telangana before 1956. Experts should see that all those tanks are revived again and put to use. Take up minor irrigation tanks construction as a major project so that there is no shortage of water for irrigation in the rural areas.”
Rao said that to address the issue of shortage of engineers and employees in the irrigation department he would fill the vacancies with retired engineers and employees. He said that he was in favour of decentralisation of power so that the issues pertaining to transfers of officials could be handled at the district level. Telangana Retired Engineers Forum members urged KCR to observe July 11 as “Engineer’s Day”.
KCR had earlier held a similar meeting with about 30 retired chief engineers, sources said.