Vijayawada: The Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had directed the officials of the Water Resources Ministry to blacklist the contractors who failed to meet the targets in handling the ongoing irrigation works. The Chief Minister who stayed overnight in the city after inspecting Pushkaram works in East Godavari on Thursday, held a review meeting on the irrigation schemes.

The Chief Minister told the officials that the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation should start on the scheduled day of August 15, 2015. He directed the officials to ensure that the Polavaram right canal, that brings the Godavari water to Krishna river is completed in both Krishna and West Godavari districts.

He directed the Water Resources Principal Secretary Adityanath Das to engage more number of dredgers and other required machines to complete the works on schedule. He had also asked Das to engage one executive engineer for every 5 kilometers to ensure the work is completed on schedule.

The Chief Minister had also directed the officials to divert the Godavari water to the Polavaram right canal from the Tadipudi lift irrigation scheme on Godavari river at Tadipudi village of Tallapudi mandal in West Godavari district. The scheme, which was planned in 2002 to lift 12.15 tmc feet of water from Godavari river and irrigate 2.06 lakh acres of 130 villages and provide drinking water, would now supply water to the farmers along the right canal in both Krishna and West Godavari districts.

The Chief Minister asked the officials to divert 2,000 cusecs of water from Tadipudi lift to the Polavaram right canal, so as to benefit the farmers in both Krishna and West Godavari districts in the kharif season. Chandrababu Naidu had also directed the Water Resources Principal Secretary Adityanath Das to prepare plans for diversion of the flood water from Thammileru, Ramileru and Budameru rivulets into the right canal.

Meanwhile, Krishna district Collector Babu Ahmad told the Chief Minister that they had deployed 74 dredgers in five villages to complete the work at the earliest. He further informed the Chief Minister that they have also paid compensation to the farmers after due consultation.

The Minister for Irrigation and Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Minister for Excise and Prohibition and BC Welfare Kollu Ravindra, Krishna district Collector Babu Ahmad and his West Godavari counterpart K Bhaskar, Machilipatnam MP Konakalla Narayana Rao, MLAs Vallabhaneni Vamsimohan, Gadde Ramamohan and Chintamaneni Prabhakara Rao, Irrigation engineer-in-chief M Venkateswara Rao, sub-collector S Nagalakshmi, Nuzvid revenue divisional officer Ch Rangaiah and Polavaram Special Collector Sudarsanam were present in the review meeting.