Minister for Major Irrigation Devineni Umamaheswara Rao has said that an integrated approach would be adopted for development of water resources, greenery and livelihoods.
Talking to reporters in Kurnool on Thursday along with Deputy Chief Minister K.E. Krishna Murthy, he said there was no common goal of the schemes implemented by the departments of minor irrigation, forest, rural development, IKP, watershed and numerous other schemes.
He said the result would be faster and larger if all the programmes were integrated under Water and Tree programme of the government.
He pointed out that the soil from the dredging of irrigation tanks could be used for improving the soil fertility of farmers.
Mr. Umamaheswara Rao said efforts were being made to pool the investment in the irrigation department as the present allocation of Rs 8200 crore was small. Of which, Rs 4800 crore was going towards loan servicing.
Mr. Rao said the government had taken up Totapalli, Hundri-Neeva and Nallamala (Veligonda) projects as priority schemes to bring them into full use on a priority basis. Satellite imaging technology would be used to for water conservation programmes saying conservation was as important as projects.
Mr. Umamaheswara Rao promised to solve the problem of Sundipenta near Srisailam which remained an irrigation township without the status of panchayat.
He said even though the projects on the Krishna and Tungabhadra were full, the water did not flow in substantial volume to Somasila and Khandaleru.
He asked the detractors not to create ruckus over allocation of water saying huge amounts were spent on the projects with the hope that water allocation would be done. He recalled that the same doubts were raised when Pothireddypadu was proposed by NT Rama Rao in 1982.
All the projects under Pothireddypadu were receiving water which meant that “water was assured” even though there was no “assured water”.
Mr. K.E. Krishna Murthy the biggest rewards for the public and TDP on the eve of 100 day completion in office were solar power policy and bumper majority for party candidate in Nandigama.
MP SPY Reddy, MLAs B.C. Janardhan Reddy, B. Jayanageswara Reddy, Gouru Charita, Izaiah and others were present.
