Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy today approved the file relating to conduct of elections to about 56,000 Territorial Constituencies (TCs) of some 11,000 Water Users Associations (WUAs), 342 Distributory Committees (DCs), 61 Medium Project Committees and 25 Major Project Committees (PCs) in the State.
It may be recalled that State Government, while implementing water sector reforms under economic restructuring, promoted participation of farmers in water management and promulgated Andhra Pradesh Farmers’ Management of Irrigation Systems Act 1997 with an aim to create sense of ownership to promote efficient management of water resources and to improve service delivery through better quality and maintenance.
The Act covers about one crore acres irrigated land and 60 lakh farmers. Presently, farmers organisations consist of 80,820 TCs, 10749 WUAs, 342 DCs and 86 PCs in the State and elections were conducted in 2008. The Act follows the Rajya Sabha pattern.
Now, the officials are making arrangements to conduct direct elections to 2/3rd vacant TCs i.e. 55,528. From TCs, indirect elections will be conducted for WUAs and from WUAs of Medium and Major Projects to Distributory Committees and Project Committees. (NSS)