A team of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog on Tuesday complimented the State government for taking up implementation of Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bhagiratha schemes that would have a long-lasting impact.
The team comprising Advisor (Rural Development) Ashok Kumar Jain and Deputy Advisor (Water Resources and Rural Development) Padma Kant Jha were given a day-long presentation by the officials concerned on the two schemes.
According to Principal Secretary (Planning) B.P. Acharya, the NITI Aayog team had responded positively to the State government’s request to recommend the schemes for financial assistance from the Centre. The member mentioned at the meeting that Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya had already written to several States to take up similar schemes.
Principal Secretary (Irrigation) S.K. Joshi, Advisors A.K. Goyal (Planning), G.R. Reddy (Finance), Chief Engineer of minor irrigation P. Nagender, Director (Planning) Sudarshan Reddy and Officer on Special Duty Sridhar Rao Deshpande participated in the presentation on Mission Kakatiya, while Special Chief Secretary (Panchayat Raj) S.P. Singh and other officials of the Rural Water Supply Department explained about Mission Bhagiratha.
Mr. Joshi told the NITI Aayog team that of the 8,104 tanks taken up for restoration under phase-one with Rs. 2,591 crore administrative sanction, works in 8,032 tanks were grounded and completed in 4,735 tanks so far. Works in the remaining 3,297 tanks would be completed by May. The work done had restored water storage capacity of 2.3 TMC ft by removing 667 lakh cubic meters of silt from the tank beds, he explained.
In the phase-two, administrative sanction was given with Rs.2,619 crore for 8,368 tanks out of 10,113 identified. Tenders were called for 6,962 tanks, agreements were complete for 3,314 tanks and works were grounded in 1,980 tanks so far, Mr. Joshi explained. He further stated that the State government would spend Rs.11,500 crore, NABARD was giving Rs.2,000 crore and Centre was supporting with another Rs.1,500 crore under Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) of Water Bodies to Mission Kakatiya.
Pipeline work
On Mission Bhagirtha, Mr. Singh stated that efforts were on to give water supply to 2,022 habitations in nine Assembly constituencies between April and June under phase-one of the scheme. The scheme needing pipelines to be laid for a length of 1,30,168 km would supply 39.272 TMC ft water every year, he noted.
