The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Lion's share for Telangana region, says Ponnala

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Lion's share for Telangana region, says Ponnala

Special Correspondent

Dismisses critics' charge out of hand

HYDERABAD: Among the State's three regions, Telangana stands to gain the lion's share out of Rs 8,178 crores set aside for major and medium projects from the Rs. 10,000-crore irrigation budget of 2006-06.

It gets Rs. 3,529 crores, constituting 43 per cent of the outlay, as opposed to Rs. 3,073 crores for coastal Andhra (37 per cent), while projects in Rayalaseema will get Rs. 1,535 crores (19 per cent).

Giving these details at a press conference here on Tuesday, Major Irrigation Minister P. Lakshmaiah refuted the criticism by some leaders from Telangana that the region had been discriminated against. He said the Government's strong commitment to utilising Godavari waters was proved by huge allocations for project across the river.

Highest allocation

Projects under the purview of the Godavari Utilisation Authority had alone been allotted a sum of Rs 1,245 crores, he said. Mr. Lakshmaiah said the Rs 10,000-crore outlay for irrigation in 2006-07 makes Andhra Pradesh an irrigation pioneer.

It was higher than the total of budget of 18 States and larger than the plan outlay of Uttar Pradesh. The irrigation outlay of Andhra Pradesh during the 9th plan constituted 8 per cent of the country's irrigation budget of Rs 63,000 crores. This share had now gone up to 30 per cent.

"Hereafter, irrigation will serve as a growth engine. This is the real development", he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail