Hyderabad: The highest-ever allotment made for the irrigation sector in the Telangana state Budget failed to serve the purpose as poor spending hit all projects.
The government had allocated Rs 25,000 crore for irrigation projects — the highest ever, in Budget 2016-17. But the department could utili-se only Rs 11,000 crore so far, which is nearly 45 per cent of the actual allocations.
While just 45 days are left for the current fiscal (2016-17) to end, the irrigation department has an impossible task on hand to utilise over 50 per cent of the budgetary provision that remain unspent.
The budgetary allocation for the irrigation department was the highest even when compared to the allocation for the entire undivided Andhra Pradesh made by the YSR government. Under the YSR regime, the irrigation departm-ent had got Rs 8,500 crore — the highest till then.
While the total TS annual Budget outlay was Rs 1.29 lakh crore for 2016-17. Of this, plan outlay was Rs 72,195 crore and the irrigation department got nearly 35 per cent of it. While the department was supposed to spend at Rs 2,000 crore per month to exhaust the entire allocation, TS officials managed to use an average of a little over Rs 1,000 crore every month.
Despite their inability to use the current fiscal’s allocation, the irrigation department is seeking over Rs 31,000 crore in the upcoming Budget 2017-18.
Irrigation officials, however, justify the increase as they claim several unexpected hurdles that stopped the projects in the current fiscal have been sorted out.
“Various cases were filed by political parties, organisations and individuals against projects and land acquisition. Some have approached National Green Tribunal on environmental issues. They secured stay orders due to which the projects got halted. A majority of these cases have been sorted out with courts ruling in favour of the government. In this backdrop, we want to expedite the projects this year, which requires more funds over last year,” said a senior official of the irrigation department.
Groundwater stays high, at 9.3 metres
Following the good monsoon, the average groundwater level for the state stood at 9.34 metre in January, against 13.44 metre in 2016. The monsoon last year was so bounteous that it made up for the two previous drought years.
According to a report of the groundwater department, the increase in groundwater level ranged from 0.49 to 11.87 metre, the highest, observed in Siddipet district. This is particularly good news ahead of the Rabi season, the department said.
However, in 39 mandals, water was 20 metres below ground level. In 52 other mandals, the groundwater was available at depths ranging from 15 metres to 20 metres. The department said the levels could be improved by taking up water conservation, augmentation and management measures.
