The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Sir Arthur Cotton’s contribution recalled

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Saturday, May 16, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Sir Arthur Cotton’s contribution recalled

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Major Irrigation Minister P. Lakshmaiah celebrated the 206th birth anniversary of Sir Arthur Cotton, the legendary irrigation engineer, in his chambers in the Secretariat here on Friday.

Amidst a group of officials and admirers, he cut a cake and recalled the significant contribution made by Sir Arthur Cotton to irrigation sector in Andhra Pradesh, particularly the first anicut he built across the mighty Godavari.

He said the Godavari had a special place as he repeatedly used to say that the flow of water in the Godavari on one day was more than that of the Thames river in London in a whole year. His dreams could be realised only by the Rajasekhara Reddy Government which took up several projects across the Godavari under Jalayagnam programme. Notable among them were Polavaram, Dumagudem and Yellampalli.

He said Sir Arthur Cotton rendered yeoman service in irrigation in Tamil Nadu and Bihar and even in other countries like Sri Lanka and Myanmar (then called Ceylon and Burma).

The statue of Cotton on the Tank Bund Road here was profusely garlanded by admirers while a commemoration meeting held at the Institution of Engineers was addressed by T. Hanumantha Rao, an irrigation expert.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lakshmaiah said more than 1,500 summer storage tanks in Guntur, Nalgonda, Khammam, Prakasam, West Godavari and Krishna districts, had been filled up with water from Nagarjunasagar. Water was also released from Sriramsagar and its allied projects to supply drinking water to people in Karimnagar, Warangal and other districts in Telangana.

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