Hyderabad, March 24: Asserting that there is no need to wait till the government gets all clearances from the Central Government departments/ institutions concerned to commence work on irrigation projects, Minister for Major and Medium Irrigation Ponnala Lakshmaiah has said the government is determined to complete the Dummugudem lift irrigation project by 2012-13.
Replying to T Nageswara Rao, S Venkata Veeraiah, D Narendra Kumar (all TDP), Akbaruddin Owaisi (MIM), K Sambasiva Rao (CPI), J Ranga Reddy (CPM) and Jayaprakash Narayan (LSP) during the Question Hour in the Assembly today, he said the government had taken all measures to get clearances from the Central Water Commission, forest department and others concerned.
He said the government divided the Dummugudem project to include link canal diversion. Allaying apprehensions over the availability of water to take up the projects, he said that about 3,000 tmcft of Godavari water was flowing waste into the sea every year.
On cost escalation, Ponnala said that as per the price adjustment clause in the agreement signed between the government and the contractors there would be escalation in the project cost depending on the prices of cement, steel and fuel. The the Rajiv Dummugudem lift irrigation scheme, taken up in 2008-09 to develop an ayacut of about two lakh acres, was estimated to cost Rs 1,681 crore. An amount of Rs 750 crore was allocated between 2007-08 and 2009-10. Of that, about Rs 406.58 crore has been spent on the works till January this year. The cost of power needed to lift the water was not taken into account while estimating the project cost, he said and added that the government would provide infrastructure for power generation and supply.
The minister informed the Assembly that necessary applications had been submitted for clearances to the Jalayagnam projects.
Alleging that the project was not taken up on scientific lines, TDP, CPI, CPM and LSP members apprehended problems with the tribunal.
–Agencies