Telangana Mission Kakatiya in muddle over regional bias
The restoration work is scheduled to begin in January 2015
Hyderabad: The ‘Mission Kakatiya’ initiative launched by the Telangana government for restoration and recharge of over 45,000 water bodies in the state has been stuck in ‘local-non-local’ controversy.
Nearly 125 retired engineers were identified by the Telangana government for the project. But, Telangana employees are opposing inclusion these engineers, as they hail from Seemandhra region.
The government has decided to pay a salary of Rs 25,000 per month for these retired engineers. The project will be executed for five years as the government has decided to take up restoration of 9,000 tanks per year.
The restoration work is scheduled to begin in January 2015. Receiving complaints from Telangana staff, irrigation minister T. Harish Rao asked officials to review the list and examine whether required number of retired engineers hailing from Telangana are available. He asked them to include Telangana engineers, if they are available and not to go for Seemandhra engineers.
“If Telangana engineers are available, there is no need to go for Seemandhra engineers. The list will be reviewed. The TS employees claim that there TS retired engineers, but some higher officials hailing from AP have ignored them,” Mr Rao said.