Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has agreed for utilisation of water available in various reservoirs for yasangi cultivation after keeping the quantity needed for drinking water needs under Mission Bhagiratha and other existing schemes.
In a meeting with elected representatives of the erstwhile Karimnagar district and officials of the Irrigation Department held here on Tuesday, the Chief Minister gave his consent for release water to the ayacut under Sriramsagar, Nizamsagar, Singur, Lower Manair Dam, Ghanpur Anicut, Gutpa and Alisagar projects.
“Farmers can raise the second ( yasangi or rabi) crop with the water available in the projects and it’s for the elected representatives to ensure that there’s no problem while diverting water to the ayacut,” the Chief Minister said and advised the farming community to utilise water judiciously.
The State Cabinet which met here on Monday has cleared allocation of 56 TMC ft water from various reservoirs in Godavari and Krishna Basins in 32:24 TMC ft proportion from 2018-end. It was also decided to alter the minimum draw down level accordingly.
The requirement of water, however, is not in that measure immediately. In the past, the State Government had taken a policy decision to allocate 10% of water in all reservoirs for drinking needs.
It is estimated that about 70-75 TMC ft water out of about 105 TMC ft available storage now in Sriramsagar, Nizamsagar, Singur and LMD could be utilised for irrigation.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also told the officials to design a separate lift irrigation scheme at Yellampally to lift water to irrigate 20,000 acres in Ramagundam area. He wanted the officials to construct a reservoir at Pattipaka in Dharmaram mandal of Peddapalli district to provide more irrigation facility in Pedapalli, Ramagundam, Mancherial, Dharmapuri Assembly segments.
The Chief Minister stated that the government is ready to provide necessary funds to the two projects. He also wanted the officials to improve the capacity of Sriramsagar and also carry out repairs on all canals.
Further, he instructed them to be ready with canal systems to fill all minor irrigation tanks with Kaleswaram project water from the next year.
Ministers E. Rajender and K.T. Rama Rao, legislators Koppula Eshwar and Pathuri Sudhakar Reddy, MPs V. Laxmikanth Rao, B. Vinod Kumar, K. Kavita and B. Suman, Advisor to State Government G. Vivek, Mission Bhagiratha Vice-Chairman V. Prashanth Reddy and others attended the meeting.
