Karimnagar, April 06: Incessant rains last year caused havoc in the district breaching the Sriramsagar Project (SRSP) canal.
The breaches in the canal were posing a serious problem with water going waste at several places. The government has not taken any steps so far to repair the breaches.
Sriramasagar Project is a multipurpose irrigation project constructed across the Godavari near Pochampad in Nizamabad district. The project under stage-I is contemplated to irrigate an ayacut of 9,68,640 acres in Nizamabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar and Warangal districts.
The entire SRSP canal runs into 347 km. Due to water oozing at several places the canal is weakening. Tail-end farmers were suffering due to lack of canal water to irrigate their fields. The canal supplies drinking water to Warangal town. About 3500 cusecs of water is being released through SRSP canal.
A scam involving misuse of public money to the tune of Rs. 281 crore by engineers and water users’ associations (WUA) in Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Adilabad and Warangal districts has been busted by teams of officers deputed by the government as part of an inquiry conducted at the High Court’s instance. The High Court ordered the probe while dealing with a Public Interest Litigation.
As many as 81 engineers of the irrigation department and several WUAs have been found prima facie guilty of siphoning off Rs.160 crore out of the Rs.281crore provided by the government to implement 5,819 works to repair and rehabilitate canals and distributaries under Sriramsagar project. When contacted, SRSP SE Sreenath said: ‘‘We will take up the repair works once we assess the breaches in the canal.’’
Meanwhile, farmers wants the government to take up the repair works of the canal before the onset of the monsoon season.
–Agencies