All govt and private lands upstream of Prakasam barrage have come under scanner
To facilitate the government's ambitious plan, revenue department is busy conducting surveys of lands. (Photo: DC/File)
Vijayawada: With the new capital city proposed along the banks of the Krishna River, all government and private lands upstream of Prakasam barrage have come under scanner. And this has brought to the fore the irrigation department’s negligence in maintaining records properly and failing to identify encroached lands.
For the riverfront capital, structures like an NTR statute in the middle of Krishna River and six new bridges, have been proposed. To facilitate the government’s ambitious plan, revenue department is busy conducting surveys of lands.
According to an old survey, conducted almost 30 years ago by the irrigation department, more than 15,000 acres of lands were within Krishna and Guntur districts limits, on the Krishna riverbeds and islands.
The Krishna central division is entrusted with protecting the lands as per River Conservation Act. But the department has records of only 2,000 acres. The irrigation department leased those lands to various private persons and companies, but most of them have encroached upon more than the allotted area. So far, the irrigation department has done little to curb this.
As per the old survey records, most of the irrigation lands are in Ibrahimpatnam, Kanchikacherla, Vijayawada Rural, Tadepalli, Tulluru and Amaravathi mandals, which are now actively being considered for the new capital.
Krishna district irrigation department executive engineer Gangaiah and concerned official Sai Kishore admitted that the department does not have sufficient records.
Mr Kishore said that the department conducted the survey within the city limits and nearly 117 acres of valuable lands were found encroached. The survey of irrigation lands was conducted three decades ago, but records were not found in the department.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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