Agartala, Feb 15 (UNI) Reviewing the dismal situation of irrigation in the state, BJP-IPFT government in Tripura has constituted Tripura State Irrigation Council (TSIC) headed by Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma integrating all related line departments for expansion of irrigation facilities to left out 66 per cent agricultural land in next five years.
Spokesperson of the council of ministers Ratan Lal Nath said after attaining statehood in 1972, the previous government could be able to bring only 34 per cent cultivable land under irrigation despite getting continuous support from the Central government in past 48 years.
The reason of the poor state of irrigation according to Nath was lack of coordination among the various departments and unplanned activities.
However, after identifying the loopholes, the state government has integrated agriculture, water resource, autonomous district council administration, panchayat, forest and rural development departments under TSIC with 13 –members for achieving the target in a time bound manner.
“In the Central budget government has given priority in agriculture and agri-related activities and sufficient allocation was proposed for improvement and expansion of irrigation facilities across the country.
Tripura government while reviewing the irrigation status in the state has found that so far irrigation facility is operational only in 2.55 lakh hactre of land and despite having infrastructure, water has not reached to about 17.55 thousand hactre of land.
To implement TSIC, the state government has launched – CM Assured Irrigation Program and a nine member monitoring committee headed by additional chief secretary have been constituted to implement the scheme within the stipulated time period and the committee will review the progress of the scheme in a regular frequency, Nath stated.
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