Hyderabad: Third-party to assess project

Hyderabad: Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao on Sunday said that the state government has sought a third-party analysis of Mission Kakatiya scheme, especially from agencies like Nabard, IIT and BITS-Pilani etc, even as some prestigious USA-based universities have indicated that they want to do a study on the impact assessment of the state government’s flagship project.

“We are also implementing social audit, wherein the budget allocated for restoring works of a lake is being publicly announced in respective villagers. This is giving good results with villagers also overseeing the progress and the quality of works carried out,” the minister said.

He said that universities of Chicago and Michigan in the USA have approached the TS government for undertaking a study on “Impact Assessment of Mission Kakatiya”. “We felt overjoyed since these world-renowned institutions have come forward to fund their researchers to study this scheme,” Mr Harish Rao said.

Lauding the media for propagating Mission Kakatiya scheme, the minister called upon the press to act as a bridge between government and public and ensure that the government’s development and welfare schemes reached the people effectively.

Mr Harish Rao presented Mission Kakatiya awards to five journalists each from print and electronic media on Sunday. He also gave his nod to a representation from online media journalists to include them in the awards category from this year onwards.