Telangana CM seeks Rs 10,000 crore from Centre for Musi project

Hyderabad, July (IANS) Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has sought Rs 10,000 crore from the Centre for the prestigious Musi Riverfront Development project under the National Rivers Conservation Plan.

The Chief Minister met Union Jal Shakti minister C.R. Patil in Delhi on Monday and briefed him about the government’s plans envisaged for the Musi River development project on a 55-km stretch.

Revanth Reddy told the Jal Shakti Minister that the state government decided to clean river Musi which is filled with sewage and leads to pollution.

The Chief Minister appealed to the minister to extend Central assistance to the Musi cleaning project, construction of flood water canals, raising the level and beautification of the river.

As the Center is planning for the conservation and development of rivers in the Deccan Plateau under the National River Conservation Plan, the Chief Minister urged the Union Minister to allocate Rs 4,000 crore for the Musi cleaning project.

The Union Minister was also requested to sanction Rs 6,000 crore for the construction of reservoirs to fill Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar water bodies with Godavari River water.

The Chief Minister said that the two water bodies will cater to the drinking water requirement of Hyderabad and will also rejuvenate the Musi River by filling them with Godavari water.

He also appealed to C.R. Patil to release funds to Telangana under the Jal Jeevan Mission.

According to 2019 statistics, 77.60 per cent of the houses are getting tap water and the recent survey conducted by the state government disclosed that 7.85 lakh houses are deprived of safe drinking water supply through the tap connection.

The Chief Minister informed the Union Minister that it required Rs 16,100 crore to provide tap water connections to the 7.85 lakh houses along with the houses constructed under PMAY (Urban and rural).

Revanth Reddy also met the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Prahlad Joshi and urged him to immediately release the pending dues relating to paddy procurement and rice supply.

He told Joshi that the Centre kept pending the release of Rs 1,468.94 crore subsidy amount in respect of the procurement of additional levy during the Kharif season in 2014-15. He reminded him that all the related documents have also been submitted to the central government.

The Chief Minister also requested the minister to release Rs 343.27 crore pending dues with regard to the supply of 89,987 metric tonnes of rice under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana from May 2021 to March 2022 by confirming the orders.

The Chief Minister urged the Civil Supplies minister to immediately release the pending dues of Rs 79.09 crores related to rice distributed under Non-NFSA (National Food Security Act) from May 2021 to March 2022.