A central team, which on Monday began a two-day visit to Telangana to study ‘Mission Kakatiya’, the state’s flagship programme for restoration of lakes and tanks, said they were impressed with the results it is yielding, a statement said.
The 30-member team comprising irrigation officials from Maharashtra, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh visited some places in Medak district to get first-hand information about the implementation of the project.
The Central Water Commission (CWC) organised the visit to enable the officials of these states to see for themselves the results of the mission.
The team includes CWC Chief Engineer C.K.L. Das, Krishna River Management Board chairman S.K. Haldar and Krishna Godavari Basin Organisation Chief Engineer R.K. Gupta.
The team members were impressed with the works taken up under the ambitious scheme. They said while their respective states had taken up different schemes for development of minor irrigation resources, they were impressed with the vision of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
Das said the involvement of people in ‘Mission Kakatiya’ attracted the attention of the Centre.
The team saw the works being taken up at few lakes in the district and spoke to farmers and other beneficiaries. At a lake in Toopran, the farmers told the team members that the restoration of tank had ensured availability of water even during summer.
The team members also held talks with the officials of Telangana irrigation department, who briefed them about the works taken up.
The team was explained about the works being taken up in phases to revive and rejuvenate 46,531 minor water resources. The works under two phases have completed and the third phase will start soon.
Das asked the team members to prepare a blue-print on how the programme can be replicated in their respective states.
The team members observed that ‘Mission Kakatiya’ is impacting socio-economic conditions of the people, especially farmers. They felt it is improving the living conditions of fishermen, washermen and even artisans.
The ambitious programme was launched in 2015 to restore 46,531 tanks across the state at a cost of Rs. 20,000 crore in five years to create a storage capacity of 255 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water.
Source: IANS