Push hard lax contractors: Chandrababu Naidu

Amaravati: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed officials of Polavaram irrigation project to speed up spillway and redial gates’ works. He suggested them to warn the contractors who are lax in execution of works.

The Chief Minister held virtual inspection of Polavaram project on Monday. Superintending engineer V Ramesh Babu explained the progress in earth excavation in spill channel,  spillway, pilot channel and approach channel. He said the progress in earth work was 0.46 per cent in the last week and so far total earth work has been completed by 72.76 per cent.

He said concrete work for spill channel, spillway and stilling basin was 0.87 per cent in the last week and the total concrete work completed so far was 21.04 per cent. The progress of diaphragm wall work in the last week was 0.87 per cent and the total progress was 88.95 per cent. The progress of jet grouting in the last week was 2.38 per cent and the total progress so far was 67.32 per cent.

The Chief Minister suggested to the officials that the works need to be speeded up and contractors have to execute the works more actively. Earlier, Naidu held a teleconference on Neeru-Pragati and agriculture with district collectors and other senior officials.

Stating that the government had carried out the works worth Rs 750 crore in April under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Chief Minister wanted the officials to increase the target to Rs 1,000 crore in May. “If the works are being executed with the same speed, it may not be impossible to reach the target of works worth Rs 10,000 crore per year,” he said.

He also suggested that the ratio of labour and material component has to be followed as per rules. He also instructed officials to take steps for early completion of enumeration of crops that were affected by untimely rains.

“The farmers who have lost their crops due to untimely rains have to be given input subsidy as soon as possible. You have to complete the crop enumeration within four days,” he said. Officials told the Chief Minister that cotton, paddy, chilli and maize have been badly affected with the untimely rain last week.

The Chief Minister said that measures have to be taken to increase the horticulture cultivation in the state. “Horticulture cultivation has to be increased to 10 lakh acre for year and the total extension has to reach to 1 crore acre. The income through horticulture sector needs to be increased by 30 per cent,” he said.

He instructed the panchayat raj and rural development and water resources department to take steps to speed up farm ponds and contour trenching works as part of water conservation measures. “With the measures taken by the state government for water conservation, the ground water level has increased by 2.4 metre though there was 11 per cent deficit in rainfall,” he said.