Chief Minister Raman Singh on Monday held a review of under-construction key irrigation projects and issued strict instructions to officers of Water Resource Department to complete ongoing irrigation projects in state at war-footing so that the farmers get advantage of the projects.
Chief Minister especially reviewed the 21 projects in detail, which have input cost of Rs 50 crore and above. Officials informed in the meeting that completion of all these projects will expand irrigation capacity by nearly 96,000 hectares.
In this review meeting, Singh appreciated Water Resource Department for completing 34 old and incomplete irrigation schemes in first three months of the current fiscal year and thereby creating irrigation capacity of 22,000 hectares under lakshya Bhagirathi Abhiyan, which is equal to the total irrigation capacity developed in state last year.
He advised officials at the meeting that the projects, in which cases of land acquisition, compensation and rehabilitation are pending or in process, should be redressed in a time-bound manner.
Singh directed Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand to issue necessary guidelines through a video-conferencing to Collectors for immediate redressal of forest clearance and land acquisition related cases in order to pace up the works of irrigation projects.
After video-conference of Chief Secretary is held, Chief Minister himself review the works. Collector and officials of Revenue Department, Water Resource Department and Forest Department of the districts concerned should redress such cases with mutual coordination.
Besides, progress of the projects, wherein construction of canals is in process, should be monitored every three months. Chief Minister said that the officials should chalk out action plan for providing solar irrigation pumps to farmers in villages, situated near irrigation barrages, and enact it as per the rules.
In the meeting, Chief Minister reviewed particularly those projects, which are to be completed within next two years. Officials informed in the meeting that many irrigation projects have progressed significantly and many of these projects have started supplying water to farmers. 74 per cent of the main work and 31 per cent of the canal work of Arpa-Bhainsajhar project, which costs around Rs 606 crore 43 lakh, has been completed. This project is estimated to expand irrigation capacity by nearly 25,000 hectares area in Bilha and Takhatpur areas of Bilaspur project.
Singh also collected information from officials about the progress in construction work of Bhatapara branch canal and other canals, under Mahanadi project. Officials informed that 50 per cent of these works has been completed. Construction of this canal is underway at fast pace to ensure water supply to farms in villages of the last row. This project has also been linked to Sodhur irrigation project. There is a target of building nearly 10,000 hectares of irrigation capacity from Bhatapara branch canal in three months.
Raman Singh also directed senior officials of Water Resource department to regularly monitor all the under-construction projects. He also reviewed Kelo irrigation project of Raigarh district.
In the meeting, Chief Minister took note of the sanctioned and under-construction projects on Mahanadi and various rivers including Milauni, Kudri, Samoda, Vasanpur, Sardih, and Kalma barrage along with ongoing Matul diversion, Khotutola barrage, Ghumka diversion, Thara water reservoir, Pradhanpath barrage, Sukha Nala project and Mongra irrigation project in Rajnandgaon.
In the meeting Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand, Additional Chief Secretary N Baijendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Aman Kumar Singh, Secretary Subodh Kumar Singh, Secretary Finance Department Amit Agrawal, Secretary Water Resource Department Ganesh Shankar Mishra, Secretary Public Relations Santosh Mishra and other senior officers were also present.