Help Reduce Interest Burden on Loans, Uttam Urges Centre

Hyderabad: Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday urged the Centre to assist the state in reducing the interest burden on the loans taken by the previous BRS government for the irrigation sector. He proposed that the Centre help the state by convincing lending agencies either to reduce the interest rates or do away with the payment of interest amounts.

Uttam Kumar Reddy discussed this issue, along with several other issues related to the state's irrigation projects, with Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Patil and senior officials from the ministry in New Delhi, according to an official release.

The irrigation minister also had a discussion with his counterpart from Chhattisgarh, Kedar Kashyap, and urged him to speed up the issuance of a no-objection certificate for the Sammakka-Saralamma barrage. He then held discussions with the representatives of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank and requested them to provide soft loans for irrigation projects.

In his address at the summit, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Telangana government wanted to expand the irrigation facilities and add around six lakh acres to irrigable land every year. He said the state had allocated Rs 29,000 crore for the irrigation sector this year and requested support and cooperation from the Centre to complement the effort.

Just as the Centre allocates billions of rupees for infrastructure development across the country, it should do so for the construction of irrigation projects, he said, and ensure timely clearances for irrigation projects.