Irrigation gets top priority

Hyderabad: As expected, Irrigation sector got a lion's share in TRS government's maiden budget presented on Wednesday. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who guided the budget making process, ensured that both major and minor irrigation sectors got allocations in the budget.

While Rs 2000 crore was allotted for works of the much ambitious “tanks restoration drive” programme for the first year, a massive Rs 6,500 crore was allocated for completion of four lift irrigation projects in Mahabubnagar, namely Nettempadu, Kalwakurthi, Bhima and Koilsagar. The TRS government expressed the hope to bring 2.97 lakh acres of land under irrigation through these schemes.

Finance Minister Eatala Rajender in his speech lamented about destruction of minor irrigation sector in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state.

There was no maintenance of tanks in the combined state and hence many tanks had been encroached upon in the last five decades. As a result, the area irrigated by tanks had fallen to a very low nine per cent. Farmers were forced to borrow and invest huge amounts of money in digging wells and installing pump sets.

Telangana has a water share of 265 TMC from Krishna and Godavari rivers under minor irrigation and TRS government is fully committed to tap it for irrigation purposes. Hence, tanks revival scheme has been given top priority. Out of the 45,000 lakes, TS government had drawn plans to restore 9,000 lakes with a budget of Rs 2000 crore.