The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Special cell to lobby with Centre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 17, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Special cell to lobby with Centre

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, NOV. 16. The State Government is planning to establish a special cell to seek clearances for its ambitious irrigation projects in New Delhi. Approval has already been obtained from the Centre and a senior bureaucrat will be posted to head the cell.

Disclosing this to the media on Tuesday, Major Irrigation Minister, P. Lakshmaiah, said the Prime Minister's green signal to the projects had strengthened the Government's case further. He hoped it would pave the way for securing faster clearances of all projects.

The State Government had also written to the Centre seeking assistance in securing loans from external agencies.

Meanwhile, a team of the World Bank consisting its South Asian manager for Rural Development Sector, Gajan Padmanabhan, and senior water resource specialist, R.S. Pathak, met the Minister and senior officials to discuss funding of irrigation projects.

The Bank had evinced keen interest in the proposed Godavari-Krishna link.

A trendsetter

The Minister said all means would be explored to secure funds for the projects. A major share of funds under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) was also expected.

The smaller projects listed earlier would be deleted from the AIBP list to give way to 10 bigger proposals for securing maximum assistance under the programme. He said the Centre was keenly studying the Andhra Pradesh experiment as such mega `Jala Yagnam' had not been conceived by any State Government so far.

The Opposition was rubbishing the programme fearing the political implications of the `Yagnam.'

Lambasting "the negative campaign'' on the Government's irrigation plans, he said the Opposition was trying to scuttle the works with "ulterior motives.''

Terming the neglect of the rural sector during the last nine years "criminal,'' he said the Opposition should at least join hands with the present "pro-people" government in developing the State.

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