Major and Medium Irrigation Minister P Sudarshan Reddy on Tuesday admitted of financial irregularities in the implementation of Jalayagnum programme.
Replying to a debate on lift irrigation schemes in the State Legislative Assembly during Question Hour, the minister said that an amount Rs 3,860.60 crore was paid to the contractors for the timely completion of the different irrigation projects. However, the projects were delayed. Initiating action against the contractors, the State Government has so far recovered Rs 2,810.67 crore with interest from the contractors.
The Minister informed the House 86 projects have been completed under the scheme. As many as 50 other projects were being taken up on priority basis. He hoped that 18 projects would be completed during the financial year 2012-13 and 20 other projects would be completed during 2013-14. He said about Rs 98,000 crore would be spent for those projects.
Sudarshan Reddy said that by July or August this year an additional two lakh hectares would be brought under irrigation. He said the government has decided to adjust about two to three percent of the increase in the input costs for all the projects.
Earlier, the TDP members criticised the government for improper implementation of Jalayagnam scheme. M Narasimhulu said that the scheme was misused by the ruling party leaders to fill their personal exchequers. Gali Muddukrishnamma Naidu said that the as per the rules, the government makes payments on installments basis of 65, 25, 10 and five per cent. However, in most cases payments were made to the contactors in advance without the completion of works.
P Keshava and D Narendra of TDP, G Mallesh of CPI, J Ranga Reddy of CPM and E Lakshminarayana of BJP also criticised the government for the improper implementation of the project.
Intervening on the issue, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy denied the allegations and said that the projects were being implemented in a transparent manner. He said about 58 lakh hectares of additional irrigation facility would be created after the completion of all the projects.
The Chief Minister said that about 7,578 MW of power would be required for the lift irrigation projects. Of this, 3201 MW would be supplied by the APGENCO; 2707 MW by CPDCL, 1048 MW by Singareni and 5592 MW would be arranged through solar energy sources. He said that about 15,500 MW would be required under the next five year plan. (INN)