The district Irrigation Advisory Board (IAB) which met here under the Chairmanship of East Godavari Collector H. Arun Kumar has resolved to give water fully to 8.66 lakh acres in East and West Godavari districts for rabi season. Of the 8.66 lakh acres, East Godavari has 4 lakh acres of ayacut and West Godavari the rest.
The irrigation officials have put forth a plan with 90 tmcft of water for this rabi before the IAB meeting.
Speaking on the occasion, Irrigation Minister and district in charge minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said that this year they were going to give Godavari water to entire the area with proper planning and maintenance of drains and canals. He asked the irrigation engineers to complete the cleaning of the drains and canals.
They would give at least 80 TMC first for irrigation and the remaining 10 TMC would be for drinking water and industries.
Home Minister N. Chinarajappa said that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had taken another bold decision by announcing Purushothapatnam Lift Irrigation scheme and Irrigation minister Mr. Devineni Uma is playing a major role in it.
MP Thota Narasimham and Pitapuram MLA VSN Varma said that Purushothapatnam Lift Irrigation was going to be a boon for upland area farmers and Yeleru reservoir.
There was a verbal fight between YSRC MLC Pilli Subashchandra Bose and Ramachandrapuram MLA Thota Trimurtulu with the former complaining that in some lanka villages in his constituency drains were not cleaned properly causing them to overflow regularly during rainy season. Mandapeta MLA Jogeswara Rao and Home Minister Mr. Rajappa pacified them.
