Centre will support AP govt's irrigation initiatives: Soz

Hyderabad, Oct 19 (UNI) Praising the Andhra Pradesh government for taking up ''Jalayagnam'', Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz today said the Centre would extend all support to the major irrigation initiative and suicides of farmers would be a thing of the past.

Inaugurating the ''Krishna-Godavari Bhavan'' of the Central Water Commission (CWC) here, he said the Centre had provided Rs 1617.69 crore under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme as loan and Rs 337.64 crore as the state's request for further assistance under centrally-sponsored schemes.

Describing AP as 'Agriculture Pradesh', he said Andhra Pradesh was going on the right path by providing a lion's share for the irrigation sector in the budget.

Under the leadership of Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, the state was making rapid progress, he noted, adding that a number of irrigation projects had been completed to create 25 Billion Cubic Meter(BCM) storage capacity.

He said several projects for storing another seven BCM were under various stages of construction.

''The Centre will be at the beck and call of the state for promotion of the irrigation sector in Andhra Pradesh '', he said.

Praising the State for putting into place Water Users Associations, he pointed out that ''Andhra Pradesh is one of the few states which made reforms in irrigation management. The state had taken up participatory irrigation management in a big way.'' UNI SM PK HT1720