- Legendary leader's Jala Yagnyam comparable to Bhagirath's determination for Ganga
- Aim at release of irrigation water to every acre
- Agriculture given utmost importance during his rule
- A farmer-friendly CM , he was
The state of AP, that was once acclaimed to be one of the major providers of food to the country, suffered due o drought. Farmers were agonised by crop loss and withering. Mounted debts added to the misery and prompted for suicide in many households. The sad stories heard during Maha Prasthanam Pada yatra moved YSR. He owed to prevent river water from joining the salt waters of the oceans simply. He decided to make sure every acre in the state received irrigation water.
As he thought with commitment about the farmers of the Telugu-speaking areas and their problems, YSR worked with the aim of providing irrigation water to every acre of cultivation land and a house for every family. Thus, he was acclaimed by many as 'Bhagirath' of AP. As soon as he came to power, he took up 80 projects with Rs.1,33,730 crore expenditure as promised, in order to provide water to 97.69 lakh acres.
Until 2004, there was no CM who had given such high importance to irrigation sector. Especially, Chandrababu Naidu, who had ruled for 9 years prior to YSR had seriously neglected the field. Giving it prominence soon after entering into power, YSR allocated majority of funds to the projects. He tried to finish the projects at a great pace in order to efficiently utilise the funds.
Taking up 'Jala Yagnyam' programme, he was acclaimed as Bhagirath by working efficiently on irrigation water projects. He divided the projects into categories, giving importance to those projects and schemes that were completed quickly and provided for majority of acres.
The
projects that were completed in YSR's tenure |
The
district that benefited from the project
|
Bhupatipalem reservoir |
East
Godavari |
Chagalnadu |
East
Godavari |
Peddagadda reservoir |
Vizianagaram |
Surampalem reservoir |
East
Godavari |
Madduvalasa |
Srikakulam |
Pedderu reservoir |
Visakhapatnam |
Kovvada Kalva |
West
Godavari |
Ramatheertham reservoir |
Prakasam |
Swarnamukhi barrage |
Nellore |
Veligallu |
Kadapa |
Alisagar |
Nizamabad |
Gutpa |
Nizamabad |
Suddavagu |
Adilabad |
Nettempadu lift irrigation |
Mehboobnagar |
Beema lift irrigation |
Mehboobnagar |
Koyilsagar lift irrigation |
Mehboobnagar |
The
projects that were partially completed in YSR's tenure and provided water
|
The
district that benefited from the project
|
Vamsadhara |
Srikakulam |
Janjhaavathi |
Vizianagaram |
Thotapalli |
Vizianagaram,
Srikakulam |
Pushkaram |
East
Godavari |
Thadipudi |
West
Godavari |
Venkatanagaram |
East
Godavari |
Musurumilli |
East
Godavari |
Gundlakamma |
Prakasam |
Somasila |
Nellore,
Prakasam |
Telugu Ganga |
Kurnool,
Kadapa, Chittoor |
Guru Raghavendra |
Kurnool |
SRBC |
Kurnool,
Kadapa |
Pulichintala |
Guntur,
Krishna, West Godavari |
Mailavaram |
Kadapa |
AMRP |
Nallagonda |
SRSP 2 |
Warangal,
Khammam, Nallagonda |
Matthadivagu |
Adilabad |
Devadula |
Warangal |
Gollavagu |
Adilabad |
Ralivagu |
Adilabad |
Kinnerasani |
Khammam |
Kalvakurthi lift irrigation |
Mehboobnagar |
Ellampalli |
Karimnagar |
Madhyamaneru |
Karimnagar |
In the 9-year rule of Chandrababu, he spent just Rs.13 crore on Handri-Neeva. After YSR came to power, he allotted Rs.6800 crore for the project. Chandrababu hardly showed any interest on Galeru-Nagari, another project in Rayalaseema. He spent Rs.17 crore on it in the 9 years. During the tenures of YSR and his successors, Rs.4600 crore was spent on it. Still the project has a lot of pending work. In 1996, Babu performed groundbreaking for Veligonda project. but after elections, he left it alone. He spent only Rs.13 crore on it, meaning he did not even spend Rs.2 crore per year. YSR, on the other hand, spent Rs.3000 crore on it.
Now, Chandrababu's Government is trying to ignore Polavaram project that is actually highly beneficial. Under the mask of Pattiseema lift irrigation scheme, the Government is hindering many districts from being benefited by Polavaram. Polavaram will enable storage of almost 200 TMC of Godavari waters, from which 80 TMC can be diverted to Krishna Delta and water from Srisailam and Nagarjna Sagar projects can be released to Handri-Neeva, Galeru-Nagari, thereby benefiting crops in Rayalaseema.
YSR brought to good shape many small, medium and large scale projects lift irrigation schemes, lakes and reservoirs.