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Dr Reddy said the Government was not in a position to take up any irrigation projects beyond the listed 26 pending projects due to resource crunch.

Hyderabad , Oct. 6

THE State Government plans to focus only on 26 irrigation projects it has initiated with an outlay of Rs 46,000 crore and it will be difficult to take up new projects as funds would be hard to come by.

However, given the importance of irrigation to the State, more projects would be taken up based on Central Government's assistance.

The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, today said given the State's focus on irrigation projects, the Centre has been urged to treat them as national projects and provide Rs 25,000 crore for new projects, since they qualify under backward regions.

Replying to a debate on irrigation projects and priorities in the State Assembly on Thursday, Dr Reddy defended the Government stand in posing some of the newly conceived Godavari-based Telangana projects for central assistance.

The issue came up during question hour when Dr Reddy said that the Government was not in a position to take up any irrigation projects beyond the listed 26 pending projects due to resource crunch. This assumes importance given the fact that the State was struggling to push forward the 26 projects, which have been initiated with total outlay of Rs 46,000 crore.

Referring to ensuring justice across the three regions of the State, Dr Reddy said, "If you analyse the data available, it would be clear that Telangana accounted for about 51 per cent of the total funds allocated, followed by Andhra (23 per cent) and Rayalaseema (21 per cent).

Considering the backwardness of the Telangana region, Dr Reddy said projects such as Dummugudem, Devadala III, IV and V and Singareddipalli would be taken up and was hopeful that the Central Government would consider them sympathetically.

Referring to some of the projects in the Telangana region, the Chief Minister said these projects would cover districts of Karimnagar, Adilabad, Warangal, Khammam, Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar and Nizamabad. Therefore, districts of Medak and Ranga Reddy would be covered under Pranahitha-Chevella project that seeks to evacuate 160 tmcft from Pranahitha river through Yellampalli.

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