The new irrigation policy of the state government and Irrigation Act would be introduced during the budget session of the state Assembly. The budget session of the Assembly will commence in the last week of January.
After re-engineering and redesigning of the existing irrigation projects the proposed new irrigation projects would be given a final shape in the next few days. Chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao will announce the irrigation policy in the Assembly session.
Sources in the irrigation department also explained that the government will come out with Irrigation Act in the budget session. The Irrigation Act is intended to curb the encroachments on minor irrigation tanks. The proposed Act will have more teeth to book criminal cases and impose heavy fines on those encroaching the irrigation tanks.
The encroachments of minor tanks are very high in urban areas, which include Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts. “Most of the tanks in the cities are encroached upon and huge buildings were constructed on them,” sources said. The proposed Irrigation Act will deal on how to remove the encroachment and how to stop encroachments in future.
“Irrigation minister T Harish Rao held discussions on the Act. It will be finalised soon. We are even planning to book criminal cases on the encroachers of tanks,” an official said. The state government is coming out with this Act after its experiences during the restoration of 40,000 minor irrigation tanks in the state.
Meanwhile, officials of the irrigation department have started the exercise of sending proposals for the forthcoming budget. As directed by the chief minister, the officials are preparing plans for ` 25,000 crore worth proposals of irrigation projects. Of the `1.15 lakh crore budget, the irrigation department will get a major share of `25,000 crore in 2016-17 budget.
Source: The New Indian Express