New Integrated Irrigation Act draft in final stage

The new 'Integrated Irrigation Act', which is being drafted in accordance with the needs of the State by the Irrigation Department is in the final stage and shortly it would be submitted to CM KCR for approval.

Hyderabad: The new ‘Integrated Irrigation Act’, which is being drafted in accordance with the needs of the State by the Irrigation Department is in the final stage and shortly it would be submitted to Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for approval.

Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar and his team were reportedly giving final touches to the draft. According to senior Irrigation officials there are about four to five different Irrigation Acts, some of them enacted during the Nizam era and in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, which were now being combined and prepared a comprehensive law to suit the present situation of the State.

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About 18 existing laws have been codified and a new draft has been prepared to make the new Integrated Irrigation Act more effective, a senior official said.

The new Comprehensive Irrigation Act would deal with all aspects of the Irrigation department including land acquisition, operation and maintenance of the projects, pump houses, distributaries, canals, flood water management and other components of the irrigation projects.

According to sources, the Irrigation officials have studied the existing comprehensive laws of Maharashtra, Kerala, and other States and included the best practices in the proposed law to be enacted in Telangana.

Special attention has also been paid to prevent encroachment of land under canals, projects and ponds, a senior official informed and added that the proposed new Act would also have Sections of IPC to deal with the encroachment of irrigation assets or causing damage to the structures. Irrigation lands were being encroached by locals for cultivation whenever water receded and the government never used to take action against the encroachers, but under the new Act there would be provision to take stringent action against them, he explained.

There are about 11 lakh acres of land belonging to the department at different irrigation projects in the State. Once the new Act comes into force it would become much easier for the Irrigation officials to maintain them more effectively.