Ahead of the approaching monsoon season, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has instructed the officials to complete estimates for all the Lift Irrigation Schemes proposed from Devarakonda to Kodad under Nagarjuna Sagar Left Canal jurisdiction by June 15.
As per the Chief Minister's Office, Rao asked the Irrigation department officials to prepare estimates for each Lift separately and invite tenders for all of them at one time.
At a review meeting with irrigation officials, the Chief Minister also gave a go-ahead for tendering for 15 lift irrigation schemes that he announced ahead of the Nagarjunasagar Assembly bypolls.
During the meeting, Rao said the Rs 700 Crore is kept with the Irrigation department to repair the canals and other works, and instructed the engineers to keep filling up of tanks, ponds, and reservoirs as on top priority this Monsoon season.
"The Check dams constructed with Rs 4000 crore are yielding good results and storing water. 50,000 tanks should be filled to the brim and by June 30, the first phase of Check dam's should be completed," the Chief Minister said.
The Chief Minister instructed that from Yellampally to Dummugudem, water is available in Godavari till October and all tanks and check dams should be completed till tail-end Tungaturthi in Suryapet district so that there would be the availability of water even for the second crop and the same method should be adopted for Krishna basin also.
"At the same time, measures should be taken not to create problem for the drinking water supply and Minimum water Levels should be maintained at the reservoirs. He instructed irrigation officials to maintain the Minimum Drawdown Level (MDDL) in the reservoirs," the statement added.
Calling agriculture the backbone of the state's economy, Rao said that during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, agriculture contributed to 17 per cent income to the state GSDP and came to the rescue.
"With the efforts put in by the Irrigation Department, the irrigation and agriculture sectors' topography has changed in the State. It is no small achievement that under the Kaleswaram project along two crops are cultivated in a year in 35 Lakh acres. Telangana state stood second in the country after Punjab in Paddy production," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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