Be a part of ‘Mission Kakatiya’, Harish tells NRIs, businessmen

‘TS Govt. aim to restore 46,000 tanks to irrigate 23 lakh acres by storing 2,500 tmcft of water’

Minister for Irrigation and Marketing T. Harish Rao. A file Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

Irrigation Minister T.Harish Rao has called upon non-resident Indians and businessmen from Telangana to be a part of development of the State’s villages by funding the restoration of irrigation tanks in their native villages.

Mr.Harish Rao urged them to join hands with the Telangana government's ‘Mission Kakatiya’ programme under which the aim is to restore 46,000 tanks across 10 Telangana districts to irrigate 23 lakh acres by storing 2,500 tmcft of water.

Minister’s offer

Addressing a district level review meeting of Kakatiya Mission here on Sunday, the Irrigation Minister offered to name the irrigation tanks after their father or mother or other desired names of donors.

Informing that they were working to obtain grants from the Centre, World Bank and other funding agencies for the restoration work, Mr. Rao also asked the officials to let the farmers take the whole silt from the tanks if they were ready to use them in their fields to restrict the spending. He also called upon the farmers to use the silt in their field which can decrease the usage of fertilizer, pesticides and increase productivity. The Minister said that as many as 952 irrigation tanks would be restored in Nalgonda district against a total of 4,762 tanks by investing crores of rupees.

Department strengthened

Reiterating that they would complete these 952 tanks’ restoration by May, 2015, Mr.Rao said that they had also strengthened the minor irrigation department by appointing an SE as head in place of EE, increased EEs to four from existing one, DyEEs to 16 and AEs to one in each mandal to expedite the work.

He further said that the Chief Engineer of Minor Irrigation, A. Ramakrishna Rao, and Nagarjunasagar CE Purusothamraju will review the budget estimation of each tank, tender processing and progress of work quite frequently.

The Minister said that he would visit all the mandals in Telangana to closely monitor the works. He further said that the restoration work would bring 23 lakh acres of land under irrigation besides it would also contribute to ecological balance and water harvesting.

Minister.G Jagadishwar Reddy, ZPTC Chairman Balu Nayak, Deputy Chairman of Legislative Council, Nethi Vidyasagar, MPs, Gutha Sukendar Reddy, Boora Narsaiah Goud and others were present.