Expressing concern over the tardy pace of Devadula project works, Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao today set a deadline for the engineers to complete the works by next June by acquiring necessary land on a war-footing and avoid negligence.
Addressing a video conference from the Secretariat here on Wednesday, the minister pulled up the officials for not being active and warned of serious action if works were not completed as per schedule and replace working agencies if necessary with active ones to speed up the project works. Devadula has been pending since 15 years and two years after the State formation, he said. The works are not on a speedy track and there was no progress despite several junior engineers promoted as Superintending engineers, he lamented.
“A special drive should be taken up for Devadula by removing waste material and completing works of Naskhal, Chennur and Palakurty reservoirs”, Harish said, adding that he would make a field level visit to the second phase of SRSP works after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit by which time there must be some remarkable changes. “Telangana State will lose its image at the Centre if it fails to complete the Devadula project being funded by Prime Minister Krishi Sinchay Yojana”, he stated. Giving a pat to the engineers of Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar and Khammam districts for reaching the targets on time, he asked them and staff of Devadula to follow suit.
Directing the engineers to prepare and implement plans division-wise and circle-wise to ensure that the works are completed at the earliest, Harish Rao said any dereliction on the part of engineers and other staff will not be tolerated. He also asked deputy Tahsildars to speed up land acquisition process by involving revenue officials and local leaders at Warangal, Medak and Nalgonda districts. “Of 9199 acres needed, the officials should have acquired 6078 acres but they acquired only 3121 acres so far”, he said, adding that acquisition of 1058 acres was still pending to reach 2490 acres target of SRSP. He also warned of serious action against Executive Engineer Ravinder, who should hold responsibility to fill 1.03 tmc waters in Dharmasagar and set up gates by September 15. (NSS)