The Hindu Business Line : YSR to embark on 2nd round of irrigation mission

ENTHUSED by the good result from the first round of Irrigation Mission, the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, plans to embark on a mission to visit project sites across the State covering Telangana, coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

Deciding to abstain from campaigning for the ensuing civic polls, the Chief Minister plans to assess progress of projects personally and to ensure corrective measures.

As a part of this exercise, he will visit Gandikota Project (Kadapa district) on September 14, followed by Thotapalli barrage in Vizianagaram district, Sriramsagar Flood Flow Canal (Karimnagar district) and Gundlakamma and Veligonda (Prakasam district on Sept. 20).

According to a statement from the Chief Minister's Office, Dr Reddy's visit to Gutpha and Alisagar project sites in Nizamabad district had yielded good results and the work progress streamlined.

The work on these two projects would be completed as per schedule so that its benefits can be achieved by the next kharif season.

Against this backdrop, the Chief Minister believes that his visit to the irrigation project sites will make a difference as he need not rely merely on the presentations made in the Secretariat and instead would have the benefit of learning first hand, the status of each project at the ground level, the difficulties involved, and what needs to be done to execute them within the specified time-frame.

His visits to these project sites seeks to ensure quality of work, bring about coordination among different agencies engaged in the execution of works at the district level, and speeding up land acquisition process so that commencement of works is not delayed.

While discussing the second round of Irrigation Mission with officials today, Dr Reddy pointed out that the State's responsibility to complete the projects on time has increased with the Irrigation Mission evoking nation-wide attention and drawing praise from the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and leaders of other parties.

The Centre has been responding positively and quickly to requests for early clearance of projects with the Central Water Commission (CWC) according sanction to some of the projects.

Dr Reddy observed that development of irrigation sector holds the key to overall growth considering that the Indian economy is mainly agrarian in nature and economy is rural-centric. These have the potential to spur other sectors such as industry and services.

This irrigation focus is already beginning to show results with the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) set to witness a growth of over 7 per cent this year as against average growth of 5 per cent. This was mainly due to agriculture activity.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
India looking at collaborations with US on agriculture research

Oilseed price fall keeps inflation under check

YSR to embark on 2nd round of irrigation mission

Mixed trend in spot rubber

Raw sugar imports may continue next season — 15 lakh tonnes likely to bridge demand-supply mismatch

UTI AMC awaits SEBI nod to launch gold exchange fund

Vanaspati units urged to leverage their strengths to raise demand

Heavy arrivals keep cardamom prices at lower levels

Areca growers plan seed bank

Globoil to discuss issues dodging vegoil sector

Vanishing tribe