Complete irrigation projs at war-footing: Raman asks officials

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh today instructed officials to complete the ongoing irrigation projects in the state at war-footing.
"The Chief Minister gave directives in this regard while reviewing the progress of these projects during a meeting held this afternoon here at his residence office," a government official said.
"He gave strict instructions to officers of Water Resource Department (WRD) to complete the underway irrigation projects as early as possible so that the farmers of the state may get advantage of the same," the official said.
During the meeting, Singh especially reviewed the 21 projects in detail, which have an input cost of Rs 50 crore and above.

Officials informed that completion of all these projects will expand irrigation capacity by nearly 96,000 hectares.
Singh appreciated WRD for completing 34 old and pending irrigation schemes in first three months of the current fiscal and thereby creating irrigation capacity of 22,000 hectares under 'Lakshya Bhagirathi Abhiyan', which is equal to the total irrigation capacity developed in state last year.

The Chief Minister told the officials that the projects, in which cases of land acquisition, compensation and rehabilitation are pending or in process, should be addressed with a time-bound programme.
Singh, through video-conferencing, directed Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand to issue necessary guidelines to Collectors for immediate redressal of forest clearance and land acquisition related cases in order to pace up the works of irrigation projects.

Singh asked the officials to chalk out an action plan for
providing solar irrigation pumps to farmers in villages, situated near irrigation barrages, and enact it as per the rules.
Singh also took note of the sanctioned and under-construction projects on Mahanadi and various rivers including Milauni, Kudri, Samoda, Vasanpur, Sardih, and Kalma barrage along with ongoing Matul diversion, Khotutola barrage, Ghumka diversion, Thara water reservoir, Pradhanpath barrage, Sukha Nala project and Mongra irrigation project, said the official.