Time to dump India’s water policy in Bay of Bengal, says CM KCR

CM KCR said that the water policy of India was outdated and it was not fit and fair to outwit the challenges being faced by the country

Hyderabad: Chief Minister and BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao said on Thursday that the water policy of India was outdated and it was not fit and fair to outwit the challenges being faced by the country.

Addressing the BRS functionaries after inaugurating the party office at Nagpur, he said the present water policy should be dumped in Bay of Bengal thus making way for a new one which could help harness and utilize every available drop of water judiciously.

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Water is a resource which the country has been abundantly endowed with. No need to beg or borrow water from either the USA, Russia or any other country. Of the 1.40 lakh TMCs the country has been receiving annually in the form of rain water, nearly half was going with evaporation.

The country was able to utilise hardly 19000 tmcs to 20,000 tmcs of what was left while over 50,000 tmc was flowing untapped into the sea.

He maintained that every acre of land in the country could be assured of irrigation if the if its vast potential of water resources was utilized effectively. He said 75 years was too long a period in the history of any country.

No significant addition could be made to the irrigated area in the country after independence. Change would be possible if the water policy was radically changed, he stressed. Compared to many other countries including the USA or China, India had highest percentage of cultivable area..

The power sector was also replete with issues calling for attention. Despite the fact that the country has no shortage of coal, power problems are persisting. Coal India itself has made it clear that our coal deposits would support generation of power to meet its needs for the next 150 years.

Power supply to meet the farm sector needs was still not the priority in different states. The story was not different with Telangana too before the advent of the BRS rule. The farmers’ suicides were also on the high side like Maharastra.

But rapid expansion of irrigation facilities with new projects and round the clock free power supply has worked wonders in Telangana and they made it surpass Punjab state in product of paddy, he added.