Water Resources Department sees meagre flow of funds

Amaravati: Even as the State government has an ambition to complete Polavarm Irrigation Project (PIP) by 2019 and other 28 ongoing priority projects by end of this year, finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu allocated only Rs 16,978 crore (including revenue expenditure) to the water resources department for 2018-19 fiscal.

Of the total amount, major share has been allotted to Polavaram project. The government proposed allocation of Rs 9,000 crore to the Polavaram in the budget. Though, the State government set a target to complete this project by 2019, the ground reality is different. The Chief Minister himself often says that he was patience towards the Centre only because of Polavaram project as it must give 100 per cent funds to it. 

Though the project was declared as national, the Centre sanctioned Rs 5,349 crore in the four years against the total project cost of Rs 56,000 crore. In fact, the State government spent Rs 7,918 crore so far on the project and the Centre has to reimburse Rs 2,565 crore to the government yet.

As the Centre is only confined to reimburse funds to the project, state government has to spend thousands of crores first and have to wait for reimbursement. On other hand, the Centre is alleging that the state government did not submit utilisation certificates relating to project expenditure.

In this backdrop, it is interesting to note that how the state government will complete the project by 2019 by making meagre allocation to it. On other hand, the government has set a deadline for completion of five of 28 irrigation projects such as Gorukallu reservoir, Owk tunnel, Pulikanuma Lift Irrigation scheme, Pedapalem LI scheme and Chinasana LI Scheme by March 31.

Naidu also said at least 20 irrigation projects including Godavari-Penna River Linking Project–Phase 1, Vaikuntapuram Barrage, Swarnamukhi-Somasila Link Canal, Althurupadu Reservoir, Mallemadugu Reservoir, Sri Balaji Reservoir, Venugopalasagar Reservoir, Veligonda Tunnels 1 and 2, Chintalapudi Lift Irrigation Scheme, Paleru Reservoir, Mahendratanaya Reservoir , Tarakarama Thirtha Sagaram Project, Uttarandhra Sujala Sravanthi, GNSS Phase II–Kadapa, HNSS – road widening works, development of tanks in Western Kurnool, Hiramandalam-Sompeta-Ichapuram Canals and Jeedipalli-Bairavanthippa Link should be completed in a time bound manner.

Though, Yanamala said about creating ‘Mahasangamam by linking Vamsadhara, Nagavali, Godavari, Krishna and Penna rivers, the minister did not mention about funds for the plan. The government estimated above Rs 80,000 crore needed for linking Penna and Godavari.