Water Resources minister Ramvichar Netam reviewed the progress of departmental works and schemes at a meeting of the officers of the department here at the local data centre on Friday.
At the meeting Netam said that sufficient quantity of water is available in the State for agriculture and all the main water sources have been filled, which is an indicative of the progress of the State.
Netam expressed his displeasure over the improper repair and maintenance of gates of many dams and the water-flow has been stopped through other means because of which continuous water seepage is there.
He asked the officers to keep regular vigil and regulate the water of the dams. Principal secretary of the department NK Aswal, engineer-in-chief NR Kutare and other senior officers were present on the occasion.
Netam said that water would be supplied to 14 lakh hectare areas for irrigation this year. He told the departmental officers to prepare work-plan immediately so that farmers could get water without any problem.
He also instructed to make flying squads active for regular supply of water to the farmers during kharif season.
The minister said that for construction irrigation projects in the State land were acquired from the farmers. He told the field-level officers to keep contact with the land acquisition officers for the immediate disposal of land acquisition cases.
He said that sufficient budget amount has been given for irrigation projects this year. The minister said that under new head 113 schemes have been included in the year 2013-14.
Principal secretary Aswal said that under the water infrastructures, out of the total 703 gates, 439 have been repaired and repair work on the remaining ones were in progress.
Against the received budget for water infrastructure `67.43 crore has been spent up to June, which is 33 per cent of the total expenses.
Aswal said that a target has been set to create additional irrigation capacity for 66,000 hectare area in the year 2013-14.