Harish Rao seeks best water management practices

Hyderabad: Minister for Irrigation T Harish Rao on Wednesday called for adopting effective water management practices while meeting the irrigation needs of 19 lakh acres ayacut on which Yasangi crops are being raised this year.

He was speaking at a review with senior officials of the Irrigation Department on the status of  water supply to Yasangi crops under major and medium irrigation projects at Jala Soudha here. He said about six lakh acres would be given water under Sriram Sagar Project, five lakh acres under Nagarjuna Sagar left canal, two lakh acres under Nizam Sagar and six lakh acres under different medium irrigation projects.

The Minister was all praise for the irrigation officers for the splendid job they had done during Yasangi season under Nizam Sagar last year, helping the State to a bumper paddy crop. He asked them to ensure that water reached the tail-end areas at any cost by adopting best and effective water management practices for this season too.

Rao asked irrigation authorities to give water for at least two lakh acres under Nizam Sagar project at any cost. The same extent of area was provided water supply for Yasangi last year.

The Minister said the department had set a target for releasing water to four lakh acres of aycut above Lower Manair Dam (LMD) and another 1.15 acres below the Manair dam. He asked the officials to ensure that the needs of Mission Bhagiratha programme were fully met by preserving its allotted share while meeting the irrigation needs in the ayacuts of respective projects.

The Minister was informed by the irrigation officials that the department had successfully given seven wettings to the standing crops under Nizam Sagar reservoir and the standing crops were in need of four more wettings before the harvest.

The Minister asked the irrigation officials to ensure effective patrolling of canals at night to prevent unauthorised drawals by tampering or destroying water release structures. If needed, the support of police and revenue officials should be taken, he added.

The Minister said of 10 tmc water available in the common  reservoirs, 4 tmc could be supplied to save the standing crops and remaining 6 tmc should be released to support drinking water supply under Mission Bhagiratha.

He directed the irrigation officials to close the SRSP canals by April 16 and LMD canals by March 20. He also suggested to engineers concerned to take permission of Chief Engineer before pumping water from Sriram Sagar reservoir for crops raised under the lift irrigation schemes.

Harish Rao also wanted the Nagarjuna Sagar project authorities to ensure effective supply of water to three lakh acres of land above the Palair balancing reservoir under the Nagarjuna Sagar Lift Canal system and another 2 lakh acres below Palair reservoir.

The Minister was informed that some 72 tmc of water was available in both Srisailam Dam and the Nagarjuna Sagar project to meet the irrigation needs in their respective ayacuts in the two Telugu States.

The utilisation of TS from the two reservoirs was 126 tmc as against 299 tmc utilised so far by Andhra Pradesh.