Politics lets down lift schemes in Andhra Pradesh

Khammam: Lack of unity and commitment among the farmers and dereliction of irrigation officials have led to non-functioning of 50 per cent of lift irrigation schemes in Khammam district. It is identified that the influence of political parties has halted several lift schemes in the district.

The government is finding ways to rein in these politicos in the functioning of these lift irrigation schemes. Lack of planning on expenditure and wrong decisions being taken by lift irrigation governing bodies is also a prime reason for it. There are 131 lift irrigation schemes in the district and about 43,000 acres is being irrigated. But, about 51 schemes were identified as non-functional and another 54 functioning partially. Because of it, the farmers shifted to irrigate dry crops from paddy in 9,000 acres.

The government has made a list of ‘dos and don’ts’ to be followed by members of the scheme to run the scheme in a successful way. The governing body should be transparent on the financial matters of the scheme. The expenditure and revenue should be shown to every month to the members of the scheme.

Farmers of the scheme should be in clarity on water sharing. The member farmers should meet every fortnight and inspect the water distributors and pipelines. There should not be delay in constituting the governing committees.

N. Santan Rao, former chairman of a lift irrigation scheme in Kusumanchi mandal, said, “Every farmer, who is getting water under the lift irrigation scheme, should feel accountability and responsibility. They should not hesitate to pay their dues to run the scheme.”

There are allegations that some officials are not responding promptly when the time of not working of the motors. The officials were asked to monitor the schemes and try to achieve coordination among the member farmers and complete the repairs as early as possible.