Harish Rao blames bad state of tanks for farmer suicides

Hyderabad: Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao said that suicides in Telangana State could have been much less if the tanks in the State were in good condition.

If the tanks had the capacity to store 260 TMC of water as recommended by the Bachawat committee, the suicides could have been much less but due to negligence of successive governments, only 80 TMC of water could be stored now, he said.

Replying to a short discussion on first phase of Mission Kakatiya programme, he said that the government had allotted 10 times the average budget spent per year on tanks and lakes in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

The budget allotted from 2010-14 was Rs 1,000 crore while Telangana government allotted Rs 2,611 crore just for revival of tanks in the first year, Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao said.

Harish asserted that allocation of such high budget was a pointer to TRS government’s strong commitment to restore the past glory of the 46,531 water bodies in the State. Unlike previous regimes which took up such programmes to feed the contractors,

TRS government’s Mission Kakatiya was only aimed at benefitting farmers’ community, he said. The Minister further added that with e-procurement and competitive bidding, Irrigation department could save nearly Rs 1,000 crore which would be used for works in second year.

“We can complete restoration works in nearly 6,000 lakes out of the 8,217 lakes set as target for the first year. The balance works will be undertaken simultaneously with second year’s works to be held from January 2016 to June 2016,” Harish stated.

Responding to MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi’s requests, he said that top priority would be given to restoration of 169 lakes in GHMC limits.

Mir Alam Tank and other water bodies would be covered in the second phase of Mission Kakatiya. In view of high pollution, Sewage Treatment Plants would be set up to transform polluted water into clean water.