Additional 4,482 hectares of land to be irrigated
The Department of Water Resources is planning to spend about Rs 40 crore in Nupada district for repair, renovation and restoration (RRR) of traditional waterbodies.
The scheme, which will be funded by the Central Government, has already been cleared by the Technical Advisory Committee at the State level and is waiting for the Central approval.
Nuapada district has got the largest share, 111 out of 595 projects planned for the entire State. The Minor Irrigation department will act as the nodal department for execution of the scheme.
The irrigation coverage in Nuapada district through minor irrigation projects is 8,075 hectares of land in total at present. “After the execution of the scheme, an additional area of 4,482 hectares will be covered under flow irrigation, when the listed water bodies would be repaired and renovated with a spending of Rs 3,835 lakh,” said the Executive Engineer (EE) of Minor Irrigation department.
The EE informed that the projects for RRR have already been identified in the district. “Most of the existing projects have been defunct due to siltation and lack of maintenance. Most of these water bodies do not have surplus and sluices. We are planning to strengthen the embankments and make those technically fit to provide flow irrigation,” the EE informed. Dash lamented that the Government had not taken a decision on the issue as yet.
The court passed an order on September 8 last requiring the Government to take a decision on the representation within a period of two weeks from the date of production of the certified copy. Accordingly the court order copy was submitted to the Urban Development department.
However, if still the Government does not take a positive step in their favour, a revision petition will be filed in the court, said Dash in a Press briefing here on Saturday.
BJD Rourkela District president Anand Mohanty and Raghunathpali city unit president Sudhir Sundar Ray said the demand was genuine and they would also try to convince the Government for a positive result. They further said the matter was in the knowledge of Raghunathpali MlA Subrat Tarai and he had given assurance for all sorts of help to de-list the areas.