The Telangana Government has requested the Centre to exempt the loans of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) being arranged for completion of pending irrigation projects from the total borrowing limit of the State allowed under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act norms.
The request was made by Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao when he called on Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti in Delhi on Tuesday. In her response, the Union Minister stated that she would forward the plea to the Ministry of Finance for taking a decision.
A total of about Rs.7,000 crore loan has been sought by the State Government to complete 11 irrigation projects included under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojna (PMKSY), previously known as Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme. The Union Water Resources Minister has selected a total of 99 pending projects in the country for their completion by 2020 with an amount of Rs.80,000 crore. Devadula and Bheema lift irrigation projects and SRSP Stage-II are the major irrigation projects included under the PMKSY from Telangana. Kumram Bheem, Gollavagu, Rallivagu, Mathadivagu, Peddavagu (Neelvayi project), Peddavagu (Jagannath project), Palemvagu and SRSP Flood Flow Canal are the other projects selected for completion under the programme.
According to officials of the Irrigation Department, 25 per cent of the cost of projects taken up under PMKSY/AIBP is given as assistance/grant by the Centre and it would also guarantee the NABARD loans taken for meeting the cost escalation of the pending projects.
“We (Telangana) have requested the Centre to increase the grant to 60 per cent of the project cost since most of the pending projects are located in remote and Left-Wing extremist-affected areas,” Mr. Harish Rao said. Further, he requested the Centre to release Rs.700 crore grant pending for Bheema, SRSP Stage-II and Devadula projects. “Rs. 11 crore was released today and the officials assured to give proceedings on about Rs.300 crore for Devadula and another Rs.300 crore for other projects in one week,” he explained. An amount of Rs.112.5 crore was released for Devadula in March this year.
The Centre was also urged to sanction Rs.5,000 crore grant to Mission Kakatiya programme as recommended by NITI Aayog. A meeting was also held later with the Irrigation Ministers and Secretaries of five States, including Telangana, for discussing the bottlenecks, if any, faced in implementing PMKSY.
