Comapred To Past Years Farmers suicides down In Telangana:Harish Rao

T. Harish Rao whom is the Minister for Irrigation of Telangana said on Friday in Assembly that restoration of 16,606 minor irrigation tanks had been completed so far out of 27,713 taken up with Rs 8,625 crore under four phases of the Mission Kakatiya�programme.

Against the goal of stabilising 20 lakh acres ayacut by restoring over 46,000 such water bodies, the government was able to stabilise 5.5 lakh acres ayacut already. He stated that studies taken up by several agencies and institutions had revealed that restoration of tanks had improved irrigation potential by 51%, recharged open wells, and improved availability of water in tubewells.

As a result of availability of more water with increased water holding capacity in restored minor irrigation tanks, cultivation of paddy under them had gone up by 30% to 35%, the Minister noted. He explained that improved irrigation facility under major, medium and minor irrigation sources in addition to other measures taken up by the government had brought down farmers� suicides in Telangana and it was stated by Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh in Parliament recently.

Mr. Harish Rao stated that while farmers� suicides had come down by 53% in Telangana � 645 in 2016 compared to 1,400 in 2015 � it was up by 145% in Maharashtra from 1,491 to 3,661 and up by 32% in Karnataka from 1,569 to 2,079 during the period. Taking a dig at the Congress for creating hurdles in the implementation of major irrigation projects such as Kaleshwaram, Palamuru-Rangareddy, Dindi and others, Mr. Harish Rao said it was none other than defeated Congress candidates in the last election who had filed cases. He wanted to expose their deeds to obstruct projects� execution but was holding back as Congress members were not present. He, however, said he would avail another opportunity to expose them.

Meanwhile, the Assembly granted 11 demands of commercial taxes, revenue and registration, municipal administration, panchayat raj, rural development, roads and buildings, transport, major, medium and minor irrigation, energy and excise departments with an outlay of about ?59,971 crore. Legislators B. Ganesh Gupta, Jaffar Hussain, Somarapu Satyanarayana, Sandra Venkata Veeriah, Jalagam Venkata Rao, R. Krishnaiah and Sunnam Rajaiah spoke on the demands.