Harish Rao inaugurates Thotapalli link canal works

Karimnagar: Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao said that Rs 25,000 crore would be released to complete all the pending irrigation projects in the State. The Minister inaugurated Rs 117.93 crore worth Thotapalli link canal works at Ogulapur of Chigurumamidi mandal in Karimnagar district on Wednesday. Speaking on the occasion, he said that Mid Manair would be filled with 25 tmc ft of water by completing it by next June.

The Minister said that water would be supplied for two crops in Husnabad dry land areas by completing Gouravelli and Gandipelli reservoirs in the coming one year period. For the Gouravelli and Gandipalli projects, Rs 1,000 and Rs 334 crore were sanctioned respectively. Both the reservoirs would be interlinked with Thotapalli link canal.

Stating that about 100 acres of land would be acquired for the canal, Harish Rao promised to provide compensation to farmers according to GO 123 and he appealed to the people to cooperate with the government in completing the project as early as possible. Assuring to pay one per cent bonus to the contractor if he completes the works within one year, the Minister warned that two per cent penalty would be collected if the contractor failed to do so.

Thotapalli reservoir was cancelled and redesigned for the benefit of the people, he added. Harish Rao said that Thotapalli needs Rs 1,000 crore to supply water to 48,000 acres and three villages were completely submerged under the project. But with the redesign, the same extent of land was going to be covered with a meagre amount of Rs 100 crore and submergence of villages was completely avoided, he added.

He said land would be returned at a lower price to those who lost land under the project. If they were not ready to take back their lands, the government was mulling two options-one is to provide jobs to the unemployed youth by establishing an industry and another is to allocate land to dalits under three acre-land scheme.