Telangana Government has allocated ₹22,301 crore for the irrigation sector in the 2024-25 State budget presented to the Assembly on Thursday, with focus on completing the pending projects and proper maintenance of the completed ones.
The thrust of the budgetary allocation was outlined by Deputy Chief Minister M. Bhatti Vikramarka, who also handles the portfolios of Finance and Energy, during the his budget speech wherein he stated that the hasty decisions taken by the previous government in the construction of Kaleshwaram project with faulty designs and sub-standard quality of work had made its future questionable.
“Farmers had high hopes due to the extensive hype given to the project. But, within a short time, deficiencies in the project came to light and left the entire State in shock”, the Deputy Chief Minister said adding that an inquiry committee was appointed to identify irregularities in the project and to suggest remedial measures to protect the project so that huge public money spent on it so far did not go waste.
Present allocation seeks to complete the pending projects as the previous government had neglected many of them though they were in the final stages of construction. As a result, despite spending a lot of public money, they could not be put to public use, he said.
The focus would be on completing six pending projects which are in the final stages and which could give for irrigation to the intended ayacut immediately during the current financial year itself. Similarly, 12 more projects are planned to be completed in the next financial year.
Several major, medium and small projects had failed to give the intended benefits as their maintenance was not taken up during the last 10 years. By taking up regular maintenance and repairs on such projects, the government was planning to make them useful to the State’s economy, Mr. Vikramarka said.
The socio-economic outlook too presented a bleak picture of the past pertaining to the irrigation sector as it has mentioned that in 10 years from 2014, since State formation, the previous government had spent ₹1,81,068 crore on major, medium and minor irrigation projects as also small lift irrigation schemes. However, the irrigation potential created was only 15.81 lakh acres against 57.79 lakh acres irrigation potential created with ₹54,234 crore till 2014.
