Work on the much-awaited Rs.1,840-crore Kuttanad Package, recommended by the M.S. Swaminathan Commission for the conservation and development of the unique region, will begin on September 5.
Announcing this after a meeting at the District Collectorate here on Friday, Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran and Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran said Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, Union Minister for Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal and others would be present for the launch of the work at Mankombu here.
The details of the launch function were being worked out. The works that would be launched as part of the first phase of implementation of the package included those on irrigation projects worth Rs.343 crore that were sanctioned under the Union government's flood management and control scheme.
Construction of outer bunds and development of ‘padasekharams' (polders) of the C and D Blocks and renovation of the Alappuzha-Changanassery Road and the Rani, Chithira ‘kayal padasekharams' would also be part of the works, the Ministers said.
The Union government would release 75 per cent of the funds for the works while the rest would be from the State government. The Swaminathan Commission, headed by renowned agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan, after a detailed study tour in March 2007 of the Kuttanad region, which is only the second place in the world where agriculture is done below sea level, had submitted a report to the Centre in September 2007.
The report was approved as the Kuttanad Package, with a financial outlay of Rs.1,840 crore, in July 2008. Dr. Swaminathan, in his report, had suggested promoting Kuttanad as a Special Agricultural Zone on the lines of Special Economic Zones.
Kuttanad would be an ideal candidate for such a zone since “the conservation and enhancement” of rice farming systems in the area was in the interests of both Kerala and the rest of India, he had said.
