The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Plan to create water management wing

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Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Plan to create water management wing

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: The Government is contemplating to create a separate hierarchical structure of engineers in Irrigation Department to take care of water management under various irrigation projects.

These engineers will be made free from any construction activity.

Indicating this, Major Irrigation Minister P. Lakshmaiah said many irrigation engineers were not able to handle water management duties effectively as they were burdened with responsibility to construct projects.

He said there was only one chief engineer to look after the entire ayacut of Nagarjunasagar and it would be “too much” if one expected him to ensure sufficient water supply to tail-end lands also. The Government would, therefore, adopt professional approach by appointing chief engineers and others even for water management.

The Minister announced that water cess being collected at Rs. 100 per acre would be fully handed over to the Water Users Associations (WUA) to enable them to undertake necessary repairs to canals and other structures for better water management. For this fiscal, the sum of cess passed onto WUAs amounted to Rs. 69 crore.

To handle the present activities of the department, including construction of projects, the Government would shortly recruit 1,886 engineers. Notification covering 1,357 posts had already been issued. With this, the total number of engineers recruited during the last four years would cross 3,000.

Briefing reporters after Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy reviewed the activities by WUAs here on Tuesday, Mr. Lakshmaiah said as elections to 10,800 WUAs and 323 distributaries committees were over, the exercise would be taken up for 83 project committees on July 18. He said presidents of WUAs would be taken on study tours to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Maharashtra to enable them to know the water management technique adopted there.

Engineer-in-Chief B. S. N. Reddy has been asked to undertake dredging operations at the confluence points of drains with the sea to de-congest drains. The works would have to be completed in two months.

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Andhra Pradesh