Andhra CM appeals to officials to help in cleng mechsm in irrigation projects

Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday appealed to irrigation officials to help the new government in cleng mechsm in irrigation projects.

He asked them to come forward with details of instances of tendering with excess rates.

"I would felicitate those officials who reveal the facts to save money to the government exchequer. The state government would call for reverse tendering immediately. Everyone is answerable to people and stressed the need to curb corruption," the Chief Minister said.

Addressing a review meeting of the irrigation department at his camp office today, he said, "Everyone knows several scams took place in irrigation tenders in the past five years and the works were allotted for higher prices. A third party enquiry would be conducted all the irrigation projects where irregularities took place and the state government would go for reverse tendering to save money."

Principal Secretary Water Resources Sasibushan Kumar, Engineer in chief M Venkateswara Rao, Govt chief advisor Ajay Kallam, special chief secretaries PV Ramesh, Adityanath Das, CMO additional secretary K Dhanunjaya Reddy and irrigation chief engineers of all districts were present.

Reddy stressed the need for saving Godavari waters as nearly 2000 TMC of Godavari flood water going waste during the rainy season. He asked the officials to come out with proposals to divert the Godavari waters to the available reservoirs like Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and other available reservoirs adding that the Polavaram project could store only 200 TMC of water.

The Chief Minister asked the officials to prepare a report on priority projects for each district.When officials explained about the ongoing projects in each district, the Chief Minister enquired about their present status and money needed for their early completion. He stressed the need for cutting down rates and asked the officials to prepare plans as per the decision of the government.

Reddy directed the officials to consider supplying drinking water through pipelines to prevent pollution as the number of tanks getting polluted due to increasing Aquaculture."Several people complained about pollution of drinking water during his Padayatra in both Godavari districts," he said.

The officials said that the state government has released Rs 50 crore towards the protection of coffer dam of Polavaram project during the coming rainy season.

( With inputs from ANI )