‘Mission Kakatiya’, the tank restoration initiative of the Telangana government, is the fastest moving project in the State, according to R Amalorpavanathan, Deputy Managing Director of Nabard (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development).
Giving details of the project, which involves reviving some 87,000 tanks that have largely been forgotten after the reign of the Kakatiyas, Amalorpavanathan said the Telangana Government had sought funding from Nabard to the tune of ₹20,000 crore for it.
Nabard funding“Since this project falls within the ambit of RIDF (Rural Infrastructure Development Fund) scheme, we asked them to submit a project proposal under RIDF. Only up to 50 per cent of the total cost can be spent on desilting. The rest should be towards bund strengthening, irrigation and so on. As most of the tanks are over 100 years old, the desilting cost is exceeding the 50 per cent mark and monitoring this work is not easy,” the Nabard DMD said, adding, “we extended ₹326 crore for tank restoration work last year. They identified 120 tanks in the first phase, but we eliminated some. It (tank revival) is taken up in batches.”
Restoration apart, Nabard has suggested empowerment of the local communities for future maintenance of the tanks. “Water usage should be regulated, as universally, water is going be a serious challenge in years to come. It is not water scarcity but scarce water,” he said, stressing the need for equitable distribution and sensitising the communities for efficient use of this scarce resource.
Stating that part of the project funding could also be availed under MNREGA, Amalorpavanathan said Nabard is contemplating to push the project under GCF (Green Climate Fund).
“Incidentally, Nabard is the only financial institution in Asia-Pacific to get the accreditation for GCF funding. A concept note is a prerequisite for getting the GCF support. We have asked the Telangana government to submit the note before taking up climate resilient agriculture project.”
Three agencies are independently working on this (climate-oriented project) with technological support from Icrisat, Hyderabad, Amalorpavanathan said.