Water Resources Development Minister Ramvichar Netam on Sunday said that a amount of Rs 1721.39 crore had been spent against the budget provision of Rs 2266.18 crore during the fiscal year 2012-13 on irrigation projects which is 76 per cent of the total budget allocation.
Netam said this while chairing a review meeting of State-level officers of his department here.The Minister said that 80 per cent of state’s rural populace depend on agriculture to earn their livelihood. ‘Irrigation is a must for better crop output’.
Netam said that there is a budget provision of Rs 1,603 made for the Water Resources Department for 2013-14. He directed the officials present in the meeting to complete the assigned targets within the deadlines.
Principal Secretary, Water Resources Department, N K Aswal informed in the meeting that a target of developing additional irrigational capacity of 66,000 hectares during 2013-14 had been fixed. He said that a total of 119 projects had been completed during 2012-13 which have the earmarked target of irrigating 44,443 hectares of land.
Aswal said that till March 2013, a total of 34,712 hectares of additional irrigational capacity had been generated which had resulted in taking take state’s total irrigational capacity from 18.44 lakh hectares to 18.78 lakh hectares—this is 33.77 per cent of the total cropped area of the entire State.
Till the first quarter of 2013-14 upto June 2013, it is targeted to irrigate 30,000 hectares of land from under construction projects, he said.
Moreover, administrative approval had been received for the State’s crucial Rs 606 crore ‘Arpa-Bhainsajhar’ irrigation project during 2012-13 which would help irrigate an estimated 25,000 hectares of land, Aswal added.