Will punish corrupt contractors: T Harish

Hyderabad: Minor irrigation tanks dating back to Kakatiya, Asaf Jahi period and defunct ones across Telangana will be revived and recharged in a phased manner.

Telangana government has also decided to put all the data pertaining to thousands of age-old minor irrigation tanks on the website including its location, extent of ar-ea, FTL, ayacut, contractors and engineers’ names to ensure transparency and also to get feedback from  the public. According to sources, there are around 33,000 irrigation tanks in Telangana.

Irrigation minister T. Harish warned erring irrigation contractors of severe punishment and blacklisting  from government jobs.

“It’s unfortunate that many irrigation tanks have become defunct and lying in neglect over the years. We have taken a policy decision to re-vive and recharge all the minor tanks for irrigation and drinking water purposes, including those in Hyderabad and HMDA,” he said.

Apart from reviving tanks green belts will also come up in the tank area he said.

“Earlier, irrigation tanks provided irrigation facilities for 20 to 25 lakh acres but it has dropped to 8-10 lakh acr-es. We will strive to bring ba-ck the lost glory for the mi-nor tanks. I will undertake surprise visits,” he said.

Taking exception to some erring contractors for failing to respond to the government notices, Mr Rao said the government would take stringent action, including cancellation tenders, recovery of lost money, blacklisting of contractors from government works among other steps. “We want to bring in transparency. We need co-operation of the public too. We get aid from World Bank, Japan and the government and we have to ensure it is properly utilised for public good,” he added.

The government also decided to organise review meeting in respective districts every three months.