TRS Has Revamped Water Resources Department: KCR

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today said that the state government had revamped the water resources department to equip it to bring about the major changes that had been made in the field of irrigation in the state.

He held a meeting with the water resources department's officials at the Pragathi Bhavan to finalise the structural and functional changes to be made to the department.

At the meeting, the CM brought the major, medium and minor irrigation divisions of the department under a single umbrella, and all water resources, including projects, reservoirs, canals and tanks within a territory, into a single unit.

Each such unit is to be headed by a Chief Engineer (CE), for which the number of CE posts were increased from 19 to 22.

He also decided to increase the number of Engineers-in-Chief from the existing three to six. They will be given specific responsibilities of general administration, and operation and maintenance.

Besides this, three senior officials were appointed to replace the regional CEs.

Further, the CM and the officials increased the number of existing water resources territories from 13 to 19 at the field level.

The list of territories now includes Adilabad, Mancherial, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Jagitial, Karimnagar, Ramagundam, Warangal, Mulugu, Sangareddy, Gajwel, Nalgonda, Suryapeta, Wanaparthy, Mahabubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Hyderabad, Kothagudem and Khammam.

Each jurisdiction will be headed by a CE.

The government also sanctioned the creation of various cadres in the water resources department to carry out its new duties.

The CM then reminded the officials that the construction and completion of the irrigation projects in the state was to be pursued on a priority.

He instructed them to complete several major link projects as soon as possible, and also asked them to complete any remaining irrigation project works, including the Chennur Lift Irrigation project, at the earliest.

The CM asked the officials to also take up repair works at all the tanks that were damaged during the recent rains.

He also instructed the officials to complete the embankments construction on the Godavari in Warangal district before the next monsoon, and to take up all the repair works in Konareddy Tank in the district's Wardhannapet constituency.

Instructions to complete the works of the Chanaka-Korata barrage, pump house and canals in erstwhile Adilabad district by June 2021 also followed.

Stressing the urgent need to review the progress of all the medium irrigation projects in the district, KCR also asked Water Resources Principal Secretary Rajat Kumar and other senior officials to visit Adilabad personally and take stock of the situation so that further action could be taken accordingly.

In an important step towards the completion of key projects in the state, the Chief Minister then directed the officials to immediately invite tenders for the Kutti project in Adilabad district, the Gattu Project in Mahbubnagar district and the Nagamadugu Lift Irrigation Scheme in Kamareddy district.

He also announced the sanction of the Huzurnagar Lift Irrigation Scheme in Suryapet district.

The other officials present at the meeting included ministers E Dayakar Rao and Satyavathi Rathod; former Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari; former ministers C Laxma Reddy and Jogu Ramanna; government Whips Balka Suman and Guvvala Balraju; MLAs Koneru Konappa, Rekha Naik, Athram Sakku, Hanmanth Shinde, Aruri Ramesh, Challa Dharma Reddy and Sanampudi Saidi Reddy; Chief Advisor Rajiv Sharma; Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar; Finance Principal Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao; Water Resources Principal Secretary Rajat Kumar; Engineers-in-Chief C Muralidhar, B Nagendra Rao and Hariram; and CMO Officer on Special Duty Sridhar Rao Deshpande.