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Water bodies set to get heritage-like tag
Highlights
If the Telangana government has it way, minor irrigation tanks revived under the Mission Kakatiya scheme, will soon be given a heritage-like tag.
- Minor irrigation tanks revived under Mission Kakatiya scheme will be accorded the tag
- State to introduce Irrigation Bill proposing the change in January’s budget session
- Move to protect water bodies from clutches of encroachers
Hyderabad: If the Telangana government has it way, minor irrigation tanks revived under the Mission Kakatiya scheme, will soon be given a heritage-like tag.
To ensure that tanks in the State are replenished to meet the demands of the future, the government plans to bring in a new Irrigation Act which will accord a heritage-like tag to the water bodies. This Bill will be introduced in the budget session of the Assembly which will commence from the last week of January.
The main objective of the Act is to curb encroachment of irrigation tanks in villages and urban areas where the water bodies would be revived under the Mission by earmarking Rs 2,000 crore this financial year alone. Under the Mission, the government has planned to revive 45,000 tanks in the next three years.
Tanks will be included as heritage structures in the State gazettes like other heritage structures. Officials of the State Irrigation department told The Hans India that the Act will also empower authorities to remove existing encroachments besides curbing illegal occupation of water bodies.
They added that the proposed Act will also allow to book criminal cases and impose heavy fines against land grabbers as it is done in the case of encroached heritage structures.
A senior official noted that most of the encroached tanks in Telangana fall under the Greater Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy district
limits.
The new ‘Irrigation Policy’ will be announced by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in the budget session. The government has already decided to allocate nearly Rs 20,000 crore for redesigning and re-engineering the projects.
“The allocations for the protection of tanks under Mission Kakatiya will be increased to Rs 3,000 crore in 2016-17,” an official said. The new policy will be given utmost priority to complete all pending projects in the next three years.
Patan Afzal Babu
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