Kaleshwaram saw cultivation area in Telangana increasing: KTR

Opposition parties were unable to see this and were still criticizing the State government saying that not a single acre of cultivation area had increased after the Kaleshwaram project, said KTR

Rajanna-Sircilla: Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao said the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project had triggered a major growth in cultivation area across the State.

However, though lakhs of acres had now come under cultivation after construction of the irrigation project, Opposition parties were unable to see this and were still criticizing the State government saying that not a single acre of cultivation area had increased after the Kaleshwaram project.

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Stating that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was known as Rythu Bandhu (farmer friendly man), Rama Rao said K stands for Kalwalu (canals), C for Cheruvulu (tanks) and R for Reservoirs in KCR. The Chief Minister had made agriculture more profitable by initiating a number of schemes aimed at welfare of the farming community.

Speaking after inaugurating the Agriculture College building at Jillella of Thangallapalli along with Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy, Rama Rao said they had an aerial view of the Konda Pochamma Sagar,

Mallana Sagar, Ranganayaka Sagar, Annapurna Reservoir and the Mid Manair Reservoir while flying to Sircilla on a helicopter this morning. None of these reservoirs existed in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, he, adding that these projects had played a crucial role in the expansion of cultivation area in the district.

On the agriculture college, the Minister said there was a possibility for students to become the top most agronomists in the country if facilities provided in the college were utilized properly. Students should reach a position to create jobs by emerging as entrepreneurs and industrialists, he said and wanted the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University to upgrade the agriculture college as PG college.

Speaker Srinivas Reddy praised the developmental activities being done in Sircilla by the IT Minister and said Rama Rao had ensured development of the district and in the State in the last few years than what was done in the last 47 years. Rajanna-Sircilla district stood in first place in the State with the major improvement in the groundwater table. The cultivation area in the State has increased 2.30 lakh acres from 1.80 lakh with the construction of irrigation projects.

Niranjan Reddy said there was a shortage of agriculture colleges in the country. Out of 700 agricultural colleges across the country, only 73 were in the government sector.