Complete Palamur-Rangar Reddy in 30 months: Harish

Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao and Panchayat Raj Minister Jupally Krishna Rao today directed the Collectors of Mahbubnagar and Ranga Reddy to expedite the land acquisition to complete the projects in 30 months and irrigate 12 lakh acres.

At a video conference here, the ministers asked the Collectors to work on a war-footing to acquire the land by pressing special teams into the field. Irrigation Secretary Vikas Raj, Engineer-in-Chief Muralidhar Rao, Mahbubnagar Collector Sridevi and Ranga Reddy Collector Satyanarayana attended.

They reviewed on the Palamur-Ranga Reddy, Dindi project, SRSP second phase works and progress in land acquisition and steps to be taken. Promising to release Rs 50 cr for related works Harish asked Nalgonda district officials to address Motya Tanda problems and conduct inspections at Nagarjuna Sagar tail pond jointly with the AP officials. Harish Rao informed that Palamur and Ranga Reddy projects on completion will irrigate 7 lakh acres in 39 mandals and 5 lakh acres in 26 mandals respectively.

The minister directed to see that land acquisition works should be speeded up at various projects including Bheema,Nettempadu, Koilsagar and Kalwakurthy projects. The Government has plans to construct six reservoirs as part of the plan to complete the projects in Ranga Reddy and Mahabubnagar districts. While the plan is to acquire 26,500 acres for PRLIS the officials have so far acquired 3,965 acres against the available government land of 4,047 acres. So far, 5256 farmers in Mahbabnagar district came forward to give 13,000 acres and the administration has to acquire the same in 18 packages. (NSS)