TS to bring 10L acres under cultivation, says Harish

TELANGANA STATE rrigation minister Harish Rao said the government had sent a proposal seeking financial support under the incentivisation scheme to modernise 28 projects.

With the twin objective of utlising its entire 954 tmc ft share of water from the Godavari and securing its share in the Krishna river, the state government is confident of completing irrigation projects in time and modernising old projects.

That government will bring an additional 10 lakh acres under irrigation this year. “Ensuring water availability to last acre is our objective,” irrigation minister T. Harish Rao said. He said the government had ensured irrigation water for 13.5 lakh acres, without giving any chance for dharnas and protests. He said the state had achieved what was not possible in undivided AP over 50 years.

Addressing at a seminar, ‘Progress in four years and maintenance of irrigation projects’, here on Wednesday, Mr Harish Rao said, 5.25 lakh acres were brought under irrigation facility under the Nagarjunasagar, and 6.5 lakh acres under the SRSP this year.

“Farmers are saying that crop yield has increased with water being released using the 'on-off' system. Under the tail-to-head’ system, we have provided water facility to villages that didn’t have any basic infrastructure,” Mr Harish Rao said.

He said the government had sent a proposal seeking financial support under the incentivisation scheme to modernise 28 projects. It had submitted a proposal for `675 crore financial assistance under DRIP (Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Projects) scheme. With this, TS wants to rehabilitate 34 dams.

He said work on the DBM-60 canal would be completed later this month, and 58,959 acres would be irrigated in the kharif season via th Bhakta Ramdas project, which was completed in record 11 months. It is already irrigating 6,000 acres, he said.

“CM Chandrasekhar Rao had budgeted `25,000 crore for irrigation projec-ts. This financial support will help completing all pending projects as per schedule,” he added.

The acreage per tmc ft of water had gone up by adopting scientific methods. He said 13,000 acres were irrigated using one tmc ft of water under Nizamsagar project and 11,796 acres under Nagarjunasagar. In undivided AP, the figure stood at 7,000 acres, he said.

He said the construction of barrages under the Kaleshwaram project would ensure that a 150-km stretch of the Godavari would have water throughout the year. “We will have 146 tmc ft storage in the Godavari. The state government is planning to develop fisheries, tourism and waterways.”