Chief Secretary tracks Irrigation Projects in Odisha

The ongoing major and minimum irrigation projects of Water Resource department have been first tracked with a high level meeting under Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sri Gokul Chandra Pati taking a review of the ground level bottlenecks today in secretariat conference hall, wherein Principal Secretary Water Resources Sri Pardeep Kumar Jena presented the updates and outlined the issue for discussion. The meeting has resolved to follow the principles of right to ‘fair compensation and transparency’ in land acquisition for the projects. It has also been decided to book criminal offences against those who unnecessarily stop the operations at ground level under this or that pretext. Chief Secretary has also directed to take up resettlement and rehabilitation matters proactively.

Replying to the media query after the meeting, Principal Secretary Sri Jena said that as per the orders of Hon’ble Chief Minister a high level committee was formed to review the progress of the projects and suggest measures of expediting the works. Today the committee reviewed the irrigation projects like Ret, Rukura, Telengiri, Chheligarah, Manjore, Deo and Hadua. Other major irrigation projects like lower Skutel, Indravati and Subarnarekha were also reviewed. Mainly the issues relating to compensation distribution against land acquisition in the light of the new legislation were discussed and sorted out. The recommendations of the committee will be put to Govt for consideration.

The Development Commissioner Sri U.N. Behera, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Sri R. Balakrishnan, Collectors of concerned districts like Nuapada, Bolangir, Kalahandi, Sundargarh, Koraput, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Ganjam and Gajpati along with senior officers from Revenue & Disaster Management and Water Resources participated in discussions.