Telangana State to restore 46,000 water tanks
The project will cost up to Rs 22,000 crore over five years
Hyderabad: Telangana will be embarking on perhaps the biggest ever project ever attempted: The revival of over 46,000 tanks state wide under Mission Kakatiya.
The project, that will cost up to Rs 22,000 crore over five years, will restore 46,631 tanks. More than 9,300 tanks will be restored this year. Once completed, Mission Kakatiya will provide storage for 265 TMC of water from the Godavari and Krishna basins.
The Chief Minister has invited Union water resources minister Uma Bharati to open the project, probably in the first week of February. The project will require a massive amount of machinery and manpower. Besides, the government will have the uphill task of disposing of hundreds of tons of silt dug up from tanks in agriculture fields and elsewhere.
The government has opened a door for donors to pay for the revival of tanks and get their names inscribed on plaques. Besides, a publicity drive will launched to involved youth.
“It is an apolitical project. It’s a very gigantic scheme. I need the cooperation of one and all, especially the Centre,” irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, who is overseeing the project, told this newspaper.
Reviving water resources will restore the lifeline of a village and town. Water bodies will also become like the Tank Bund for people. “Reviving tanks is like reviving health.” he said.
In Telangana 85 per cent of cultivated area is rain fed and tank irrigation is the main source for agriculture. A few tanks will be taken up in Hyderabad in places like Kukatpally, Gachibowli, LB Nagar and Vanasthalipuram but the priority is for the rural areas. “Tanks around Hyderabad will be turned into mini tank bunds, a KBR Park-type garden,” Mr Harish Rao said.
The government has firmed up about Rs 5,500 crore this year, including Rs 2,500 crore from the Centre and Rs 1,000 crore from the Centre. Regarding donors, Mr Harish Rao said: “Anyone can adopt a tank which will be named after them if they bear the entire cost, which could range from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 3 crore.”
About 30-odd NRIs, industrialists and others have promised to adopt tanks. They will be asked to pay the bills later. The Telangana has decided to seek exemption to donors under Sector 80C of the Income Tax Act. The names of donors putting up more than '1 lakh would be displayed on the Kakatiya Mission website and those contributing up to Rs 10 lakh have their names on plaques at the lake site.
Asked about the Opposition allegations that the scheme was meant to knock away funds, he said the government would maintain complete transparency in tenders and works. “I assure I will try my best to check corruption in Mission Kakatiya. There could be some pilferage, but we will ensure it is minimal. I don‘t want to get into politics now. Let’s not think negatively about a good scheme,” he said.
Experts hold ignorance by government responsible:
Neglect by successive governments is the root cause for destruction of hundreds of water bodies in Telangana state, said R. Vidyasagar Rao, irrigation expert and advisor to the government.
A retired chief engineer of Central Water Commission and now a confidant of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Mr Vidyasagar Rao said the tanks dating back to pre-Satavahana, Kakatiya, Qutub Shahi and Asafjahi eras have been neglected by governments.
“Mission Kakatiya is the need of the hour. Water bodies are a lifeline for any habitation in the world. Sheer negligence has destroyed the much needed water bodies,” he asserts. During Kakatiya era, construction of tanks was carried out with utmost technical expertise. “Tanks resembling seas like Ramappa, Pakhala, Lakavaram, and Bayyaram were built by Kakatiyas which developed agriculture and other sectors and brought prosperity to Kakatiya kingdom,” he explained.
( Source : dc )
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