Minister for Municipal Administration and in-charge of Anantapur district Botcha Satyanarayana on Thursday said the government had initiated measures to solve the water problem in the Rayalaseema districts.
The Minister reviewed the available water resources in the district with the elected representatives and discussed with them the measures needed to address the water problem.
Pointing to the fact that the district had recorded 72% excess rainfall this year, he said, “The rain God has been generous to Anantapur district after Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy assumed power in the State.”
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He said the people’s representatives and officials should work in tandem to ensure that not a drop of water was wasted. He invited views and suggestions to further strengthen the action plan designed by the officials to mitigate water problem. The Minister said focus should be on developing gravity-based water storage mechanism to ensure irrigation supply to the tail-end areas. He sought feedback from the local representatives on the situation in Tungabhadra canal and Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi project, besides water availability in other small and medium irrigation projects. He directed the officials to work on proposals based on them.
Mr. Satyanarayana said many irrigation projects started during the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s term were now being completed.
Irrigation Minister P. Anil Kumar said provision of drinking water to the people of the district was the government’s top priority, followed by supply of adequate water to irrigate crops. Sixty of the 63 mandals in the drought-prone district had recorded adequate rainfall, he pointed out, and underscored the need to control wastage and pilferage of water. Principal Secretary, Irrigation, Adityanath Das, Minister for Roads and Buildings M. Sankar Narayana, and Adviser to the government Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy attended.
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