Ramon Magsaysay awardee Rajendra Singh was in praise of the Telangana government for its innovative and people-friendly programme, Mission Kakatiya.
Mr. Singh was here on Thursday to inspect Mission Kakatiya programme at the field level. He said that he came across the initiative through his friends and was keen on knowing more about it, which is why he came down to Hyderabad.
“I am surprised to know that the State government has taken up the programme. In Rajasthan, we launched a movement without the help of the government and created 11,000 water bodies over a period of time,” he said.
The Mission Kakatiya programme would help improve groundwater level, increase rainfall and tackle drought situations in the days to come. “It’s good to know that the initiative came from the government. Now, people should be involved to make it a grand success,” Mr. Rajendra Singh said.
He visited four tanks in three mandals – Mangal cheruvu in Nallabelli mandal, Uracheruvu in Chennaraopet mandal and Pattipaka and Appalraopet village tanks in Nekkonda mandals here.
He also interacted with farmers, Irrigation Department officials and local people’s representatives. Besides apprising them about the movement in Rajasthan, he learnt about Mission Kakatiya programme at the village level.
Mr. Singh, who offered prayers at the temples abutting the tanks in villages, said water was precious and temples adjacent to tanks culturally unite people. People should worship water and learn to conserve it for a better future.
“This is only a beginning. All sections of the society should take part in this noble mission of water conservation along with the State government,” he said.
Mr. Singh favoured repairs and restoration of small water bodies and more watershed structures to be built wherever possible.
Irrigation OSD Sridhar Deshpande and other officials accompanied him in his field visit.
