Anantapur: Irrigation minister Devineni Umamaheswar Rao found fault with the poor quality of work of Handri Neeva Sujala Shravanthi irrigation and drinking water project. It has resulted in seepage and water logging for Jeedipallli people located near the reservoir in Beluguppa mandal in the district. As part of his two-day visit across the HNSN canal from the initial point at Malyala he reached Jeedipalli in Anantapur district on Friday.
After a review with the irrigation officials of HNSN and Tungabhadra HLMC at Anantapur, he inspected the Jeedipalli reservoir. Jeedipalli villagers led by sarpanch Venkata Naidu said that though they had made representations many times, officials failed to solve the problem. Ministers Umamaheswar Rao, Palle Raghunath Reddy and other officials visited the village and interacted with the people.
Most of the houses have been impacted due to seepage in the village, the sarpanch said and added that there was no road access to the village after the reservoir was constructed. The irrigation minister directed the HNSN officials to implement rehabilitation programmes under R&R package on a war footing. Mr Umamaheswar Rao told reporters that HNSN project would be completed in one year to irrigate 4.20 lakh acres under the project. He lambasted Y. S. Jagan that funds under Jal-ayagnam programme was looted during the Congress government’s tenure.
They failed to irrigate even 1,500 acres through the project, he said, adding that the TD government was firm on developing Rayalseema irrigation sources. He also said HLMC and HNSN canals would be modernized with lining from the initial points of projects. The irrigation minister said he would visit every month to expedite all the pending works and also to improve sources in drought hit Anantapur district. Chief Whip Kaluva Sreenivasulu, MLAs G. Suryanarayana, B. K. Parthasarathi and U. Hanumantharaya Chowdary, Collector Arogya Raj and irrigation officials participated in the meeting.
