Finance department doubts Rs 35 K-cr allotment to irrigation

A Ravindra Seshu Hyderabad: Owing to the poor utilisation of the allocated funds last year, the Irrigation department may end up getting only 40 per cent of the budgetary allocation it sought to support the implementation of the various projects taken up in the State. The irrigation officials have put up a requirement of Rs 35,000 crore to enable the department to construct projects under Jalayagnam. But the finance department raised several queries on their proposals and it sounded sceptical in its response to the overall demand. There was an indication of providing allocations of Rs 15000 crore only, almost equal last year's allocation. "One need not be surprised if irrigation department gets less than last year's allocations," sources said. The government has spent Rs 65,000 crore so far for the Jalayagnam projects. About 30 to 40 percent of the funds earmarked for it were not spent during the last three years. "Because of this, the works on the projects under Jalayagnam are moving at a snail's pace," an official in irrigation department said. The government allocated Rs 15,010 crore in 2012-13 to complete various irrigation projects in the State, but the officials failed to spend it fully. The works of various irrigation projects including K L Rao Sagar- Pulichintala, Pranahta-Chevella and Polavaram projects were not in progress as expected in 2012-13 budget. "Because of all these factors, the government spent only Rs 8,900 crore by the end of February 28, 2013 against the allocation of Rs 15,010 crore," Minister for Major Irrigation P Sudarshan Reddy said, adding that an amount of Rs 6,000 crore was unspent from the 2012-13 budget.