MOTHER NATURE Mother Nature September 2017 | Page 25

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Mother Nature Aug /Sep 2017
THE OBJECTIVE OF MISSION KAKATIYA
The objective of Mission Kakatiya is to enhance the development of agriculture based income for small and marginal
farmers, by accelerating the development of minor irrigation infrastructure, strengthening community based irrigation
management and adopting a comprehensive programme for restoration of tanks.
INTRODUCTION
The Government has prioritized to take the restoration of minor irrigation tanks to restore them to store their original
capacity and to effectively utilize 255 TMC of water allocated for Minor irrigation sector under Godavari & Krishna
River basins. The minimum ayacut that can be irrigated with the above allocated water is about 20 lakh acres.But as
per the statistics the ayacut now being irrigated is only about 9 to 10 lakh acres under Minor Irrigation tanks. Thus,
there is a gap ayacut of about 10 lakh acres.
The reasons for this gap ayacut under Minor Irrigation tanks are due to.
1) Loss of water storage capacity of tanks due to accumulation of silt in tank beds over a long period.
2) Due to dilapidated sluices, weirs and weak bunds
3) De to defunct of feeder channels.
4) Due to dilapidated condition of Irrigation canals.
A reconciliation survey was conducted to identify the exact numbe r of all types of Minor irrigation sources in
Telangana State. As per survey 46,531 No of M.I, Small tanks, Percolation tanks, Private Kuntas and Small tanks
(constructed by Forest Department) were identified for restoration.
The
massive
programme
for
Restoration
of
tanks
is
named
“ChinnaNeetiVanarulaPunaruddarana” and it is renamed as “Mission Kakatiya”.
as
The Govt is planned to restore 9,306 Tanks every year (20% of total tanks) with an eventual target of restoring all
46,531 tanks in 5 years, in a phased manner
The present programme of “MISSION KAKATIYA” is to bring this gap ayauct of 10 lakh acres in to command which
requires no further allocation of water and also land acquisition.
This gap ayacut of 10 lakh acres under Minor Irrigation tanks can be brought to Irrigation.
Mission Kakatiya, one of the flagship programmes of the State government, is fast turning out
to be success story with the project yielding excellent results in the early stages itself. Thanks
to the rejuvenation of over 15,000 village tanks under Mission Kakatiya, groundwater levels in
the parched State have gone up by 8.42 per cent, water was available to irrigate crops in 7.5
lakh acres during Yasangi and pisciculture was set to take off in a big way. So far nearly 25000
tanks were restored under Mission Kakatiya Program.
The multi-pronged village-level mission to tap and preserve precious water resources is the brainchild of Chief
Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who whole heartedly supported it with generous allocations of Rs 3,130 crore. Devi
Cheruvu of Durajpally village has stood as a testimonial for Mission Kakatiya at Peddagattu jatharaAccording to the
officials of the Irrigation Department, the restoration of Devi Tank, which is located adjacent to Peddagattu, was
sanctioned an estimated cost of Rs 46.64 lakh under phase-I of Mission Kakatiya, but the works commenced only
during the second phase. In all, 43,750 cubic meters was completed which made it possible to receive full level
water due to good rains in the monsoon. The village tank was restored to the water storage capacity of 1.545 Million
Cubic Feet (mcft) in the later phases.
Hail Mission Kakatiya...Hail Telangana!!