more-in In a major boost to the prospects of irrigation under Sriramsagar project this kharif season, the State government has decided to release water to the ayacut following heavy inflows into the reservoir for the last couple of days. However, the schedule of release will be decided by project engineers in consultation with revenue officials and elected representatives in the command area. The decision was taken at a meeting held here on Tuesday and the farming community has been advised to follow the tail-to-head on-and-off supply concept implemented last year by cooperating with roject engineers to minimise wastage of water. Chaired by Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao, the meeting was attended by Ministers P. Srinivas Reddy and A. Indrakaran Reddy, and Vice-Chairman of the Mission Bhagiratha V. Prashanth Reddy. They expressed joy over the flood to most of the major projects. According to officials, the storage in Sriramsagar project crossed 56 tmc ft at 7 pm on Tuesday, with inflows recorded at over 2.65 lakh cusecs and the level crossed 1,081 ft against the full reservoir level of 1,091 ft. The storage was only 34.4 tmc ft at the same time on Monday and 33.13 tmc ft on Sunday. On August 15, it was meagre at 17.46 tmc ft against the reservoir’s capacity of 90.31 tmc ft. The project has over 9.68 lakh acres ayacut in the erstwhile Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Adilabad and Warangal districts. In the last rabi season, 6.1 lakh acres wer given water. Tuesday’s meeting has decided to give water to the entire ayacut under Kakatiya Canal, Laxmi Canal, Saraswathi Canal and Choutupalli Hanmanth Reddy and Nawab lift schemes. Besides, water to the ayacut under Gutpha, Alisagar and 24 lifts maintained by Irrigation Development Corporation would also be given. The Ministers enquired about the inflows into Sriramsagar and also about the flood to projects and barrages in its upstream in Maharashtra such as Vishnupuri, Andhura, Balegaon and Babli. Mr. Harish Rao said by following the tail-to-head and on-and-off method in the last rabi season, nearly 14,000 acres of ayacut was irrigated with one tmc ft water. He wanted the engineers to draw plans to fill water in all irrigation tanks linked to Sriramsagar project canal systems. The meeting was also attended by Zaheerabad MP B. B. Patil, Engineer-in-Chief C. Muralidhar, and irrigation department officials Sridhar Deshpande and K. Prasad.

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