HYDERABAD: Works of various irrigation projects proposed under the muchpublicised Jalayagnam programme were moving at a snail’s pace for the last two years particularly after the demise of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in September 2009.Despite the state government allocating a whopping Rs 15,000 crore for the Jalayagnam, the actual releases were meagre and do not match with the government’s claims.According to official sources, as per an agreement reached between the finance and irrigation departments a minimum amount of Rs 1,000 crore has to be released every month towards Jalayagnam, but only a meagre amount of about Rs 45 crore was released last month.As against budgetary allocation of Rs 15,100 crore for 2011-12 financial year, an amount of about Rs 2,000 crore was spent on irrigation projects till date.The Kiran Kumar Reddy government is concentrating more on Indira Jala Prabha which is meant to provide irrigation to about 10 lakh acres belonging to SC and ST communities with an estimated cost of Rs 1,600 crore, but not on Jalayagnam.Except for calling tenders to Polavaram project, no other major works were taken up in the last one year.The government could complete another 12 ongoing irrigation projects which are less than `100 crore each if it spends about Rs 600 crore towards pending works, the officials pointed out.In all, the Rajasekhara Reddy government had proposed 86 major and medium irrigation projects under Jalayagnam by according sanction of `1.86 lakh crore to provide new irrigation potential of 97 lakh acres and stabilisation of 22 lakh acres ayacut. Of them, 12 projects which include Swarnamukhi barrage, Veligallu, Alisagar lift irrigation, Guthpa LIS etc. were completed.Another 49 projects were prioritised with an administrative sanction of Rs 57,781 crore in 2009.The cumulative expenditure incurred till March 2011 stood at Rs 40,032 crore.Another Rs 15,700 crore is required which include an amount of Rs 5,255 crore towards works during 2011-12.About 33.67 lakh acres of irrigation potential is to be created under prioritised projects.With regard to Pranahita- Chevella Sujala Sravanthi and Indira Sagar Polavaram project, the state government is looking for national project status from the Union government since it costs a whopping Rs 39,000 crore and Rs 16,000 crore respectively.
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