The Hindu : Water conservation need of the hour: CM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 09, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Water conservation need of the hour: CM

By Our Staff Reporter

MALLU NAIDU PALEM APRIL 8. Water was more precious than money or gold and also not available as a loan, stressed the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, at a Jala Chaitanyam programme organised at this village in Sabbavaram mandal, in Visakhapatnam district, on Tuesday.

Water was becoming scarce as the time progressed; it was necessary to preserve it and raise the groundwater levels. Farmers must be aware of the drip irrigation system and other methods to use minimum water for better yields, he said at the programme attended by about 2,000 people.

``There used to be sufficient water about 40 years ago but now there is severe scarcity even during monsoon. Even if borewells are dug deeper, they would yield only water containing iron and fluoride, harmful to the health.''

The Chief Minister, as soon as climbing on to the dais, asked the village Sarpanch, Satyavathi, to conduct the meeting and wanted to know how much people had understood the Jala Chaitanyam programme and the need to conserve water. Later, he spoke for about 45 minutes, his speech sounding more like an election one, explaining the various programmes the taken up by the Government.

``The late NTR and Brahmananda Reddy had the distinction of being Chief Ministers for a long period of seven-and-a-half years. Thanks to your blessings and support I have the privilege of breaking their record,'' Mr. Naidu said.

He told people not to believe what the Congress was saying since that party was not capable of doing any good work. But he soon said that political parties might fight each other at the time of elections but should work together later for the welfare of people.

He was taking much trouble and time to put the State in order but the failure of rain brought in a lot of problems. During the last 40 years, the State had suffered drought for 20 years and it was more frequent during the last 12 years and this year's drought was the severest during the last 40 years. The kharif crop dried up and there were no chances of rabi crop. However, Rs. 5,000 crores worth of rice was secured from the Centre for distribution under drought relief schemes.

When he let people to come out with their opinion, a former Sarpanch of the village, Mallayya, wanted the Chief Minister to complete the work on the reservoir on the Bhudevi tank. After the local MLA, Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, also made this request, Mr. Naidu said the proposal would be looked into.

Later a panchayat ward member, S. Venkataramana, told the Chief Minister that no villager would attend grama sabhas held to identify beneficiaries or discuss the Government schemes, but criticise the panchayat and officials for the action decided at those sabhas. The Chief Minister agreed with this view.

At the meeting at Mallu Naidu Palem, Mr. Naidu agreed to sanction 100 house site pattas, a primary health centre, Rs. 4 lakhs to the village to provide household water tap connections and fund for laying a supply channel to the Bhudevi tank.

Earlier, the Chief Minister inspected drought-relief work taken up at the Boodida Cheruvu at the nearby Gullipalli village, and sanctioned 200 house sites to the village at the request of the villagers.

The Minister for Forests, Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu, the Anakapalle MP, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, were among those present. The District Collector, Sunil Sharma, spoke. The Joint Collector, M.T. Krishna Babu, and the Superintendent of Police, Atul Singh, were also present.

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Water conservation need of the hour: CM