The Polavaram irrigation officials were told to be ready to supply 4,000 cusecs of water through the project’s main left canal by May 2017 to meet the drinking water and irrigation needs of Visakhapatnam district.
The government’s aim was to provide water to Visakhapatnam by this deadline and the officials should act accordingly, Minister for Water Resources Deveneni Umamaheswara Rao directed the officials at a meting on irrigation projects in Uttarandhra region here on Thursday night, along with another Minister K. Atchannaidu.
Lot of stress is being laid on linking of rivers in the three north coastal districts and the Vamsadhara and Nagavali would be linked by end of next year and the 33 km canal needed for this should be completed on war footing, he told the officials.
Mr. Umamaheswara Rao directed the Chief Engineer Sivaramakrishna to conduct an inquiry into the irregularities reported in the implementation of R and R package to those displaced due to Vamsadhara project. Mr. Atchannaidu said no one could explain how Rs. 324 crore spent on displaced persons was spent. Officials informed him that there were no records regarding payment to the displaced, he said.
The Water Resources Minister expressed his displeasure over the slow pace of work on the off-shore reservoir on the Mahendratanaya in Srikakulam district and ordered that it should be completed by May 2017.
The link channel between the Suvarnamukhi and Jhanjhavathi must be completed without delay, he told engineers from Vizianagaram district. Drinking water to Viziangaram town would be supplied from the Tarakarama Theertha Sagaram project.
The Minister wanted the irrigation department engineers to work with a zeal to remove backwardness of the region. “Farmers would adore the engineers when a project is completed. Arthur Cotton, Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, K.L. Rao, Sri Ramakrishnaiah are the examples”, he said. The Chief Engineer in-charge of north coastal Andhra was given the power to use the services of water resources department’s engineers where ever they are needed, he said.
MP K. Rammohan Naidu, MLAs G.S.S. Sivaji and V. Ganesh Kumar and others participated.
