Mission Kakatiya 4th phase soon

Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao on Monday said that 15,499 tanks were restored and 10,30,711 acres of ayacut was stabilised under Phase I, II and III of Mission Kakatiya. The Minister was replying to a question raised by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) member E Ravinder Reddy regarding the number of minor irrigation tanks that were restored under the three phases of Mission Kakatiya. The Minister said an amount of Rs 7357.42 crore was sanctioned and Rs 2,630.10 crore expenditure was incurred in three phases.

Replying to various supplementary questions, the Minister said the third-party assessment was done by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) which studied the impact assessment of Mission Kakatiya. He said in 2016, the irrigation was expanded by 51.5 per cent and the groundwater level had also increased



with the Mission Kakatiya.

He said 17 per cent of wells got water with Mission Kakatiya. The crop production also increased in the vicinity of the lakes thus, the mud used from the lakes helped the farmers decrease their expenditure on chemical fertilisers. Each farmer could save Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 on fertilisers, he said and added that the fish breeding had also picked up in the lakes.

The Minister said the phase IV of Mission Kakatiya would be taken up soon and the 1,800 proposals of MK-III would be taken up in MK-IV and sanctions would be given by December. He said the program was appreciated by the neighbouring States and added that the Maharashtra Irrigation Minister Girish Mahajan appreciated the programme and said that they too had started Mission Kakatiya in their State.