Hyderabad, January 19: The Minister for Major Irrigation, Mr P. Sudarshan Reddy, has said that trial runs of the second phase of the Handrineeva Sujala Sravathi (HNSS) would be completed before June and water would be released from the project. He also asked the contractors to resume the works of irrigation projects as their pending bills would be released within eight days.
Speaking to the media after the Chief Minister’s review meeting on irrigation projects, Mr Sudarshan Reddy said that to solve the water problems, including drinking water scarcity in Rayalaseema region, the HNSS project has been taken up and works were continuing since 2003. Minor problems have cropped up in the execution of the project in the recent times. The State government was keen on completing the project. Steps would be taken to hold trial run of phase two of HNSS, he added.
“The meeting also examined where the problems were arising in the matter of Pranahitha-Chevella project, which was aimed at providing irrigation to 14.40 lakh acres and discussed the steps to resolve them. The basic permission for storage of available water has already been received for the project. It was required to get clearances from the Environment, Forest and Pollution Control authorities for the project. The State government would apply for clearances of Environment, Forest and Pollution Control in February. He reminded that the Pranahitha-Chevella project was designed with the capacity of 180 tmc of water at an estimated cost of Rs 36,000 crores. Out of 180 tmc of water, 124 tmc was meant for agriculture, 30 tmc for drinking purpose, 10 tmc for villages for drinking and 16 tmc for industries. Drinking water would be provided to 1,242 villages in 98 mandals in the Telangana region, he added.
Mr Reddy exuded confidence that there was scope to get 40 to 50 percent of total cost of the project from Prime Minister’s Fund under backward areas. The State government would try for national status to the project after getting all necessary clearances. The Chief Minister has directed the Secretaries of the department concerned to examine the possibilities to get national project status to Pranahitha-Chevella project, he informed.
Reminding that works of some irrigation projects were halted due to non-release of bills of the contractors, Mr Reddy said that it was decided to release pending bills of the contractors within eight days.
Mr Sudarshan Reddy claimed that the ministers from Telangana region have been striving for separate Telangana State. They have decided to go to New Delhi and meet the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the AICC president, Ms Sonia Gandhi.
Finding fault with the decision of Telangana activists to disrupt the Chief Minister’s Rachchabanda programme, Mr Reddy said that the programme was aimed at assessing the implementation of the welfare schemes like housing, pensions, white ration cards and others.
NSS