Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Friday met the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources and apprised them of progress of various projects funded by the Centre.
The 19-member Parliamentary Committee-led by Hukum Singh lauded Chief Minister’s vision on Water Resources Management and planning of integrating chronic drought-prone areas and flooding areas to give “Water Security to All”.
The panel was in Amaravati to study the progress of National Project, Polavaram apart from other projects funded by the Centre. Among others, they discussed the progress of Pattiseema, Purushottapatnam and Polavaram. State’s Minister for Water Resources Mana-gement Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao and MPs Maganti Venkateswara Rao and Murali Mohan Maganti, Pri-nciple Secretary Sashibhushan, Engineer-in-Chief M Venka-teswara Rao were also present.
As Polavaram represents nation’s pride, the Chief Minister said he had physically visited 13 times and virtually inspected the works 33 times from Amaravati. On every third Monday of every month, Naidu said, he would conduct virtual Inspection to keep progress of works on track.
He requested the Committee to help Polavaram Project for early completion as the State Government has fixed the target as 2019. He also conducted a virtual inspection of the site, along with the Standing Committee members. “With the help of advanced technology, we are continuously monitoring groundwater and rainfall, and examining with weekly forecasts of soil moisture, rain and others,” he said, Water is an issue of national concern, he said, promising that the work on Polavaram is being completed.
Naidu insisted upon Parliamentary Committee about the importance of Interlinking of North Indian Rivers with South Indian Rivers to mitigate the drought across the Country and said it is the need of the hour. “All rivers in the north and the south need to be connected. Water disputes between states can prevented and the resources can be managed in a sustainable way,” he said.
The meeting was held between officials of Water Resources, Central Water Commission and State Officers to discuss matters regarding Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP), Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM), Command Area Development & Water Management (CAD&WM), rain water harvesting programme, packing drinking water industry and its effect in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The meeting held as a part of a study visit conducted by the Standing Committee on Water Resources in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Chandigarh and Shimla, from 18 to 23 August.
Naidu also stated that groundwater levels should be a priority for the nation, and 5 lakh farm ponds (out of a target of 10 lakh ponds) have been sanctioned across Andhra Pradesh to boost groundwater and facilitate irrigation.
He announced the targets of 1 crore acres of horticultural land development and 1 crore acres of micro-irrigated land in the State, by the end of the fiscal year.