East Godavari Joint Collector G. Lakshmisha on Monday said that 64 committees had been constituted to remove the 4,075 encroachments on irrigation channels and canals across the district.
Recently, the district authorities identified the encroachments following the flooding of agricultural fields and habitations surrounding the irrigation sources and chalked out a plan for their removal.
According to Collector D. Muralidhar Reddy, 691 encroachments were identified in the Eastern Delta, 3,149 in the Central Delta, 126 in the Yeleru Irrigation System and 109 in the Kakinada Drains Division.
At a review meeting on encroachment removal, with Rajamahendravaram Sub-Collector Anupama Anjali and Amalapuram Sub-Collector Himanshu Kaushik, Mr. Lakshmisha said that the mandal-level committee comprising officials from the Revenue and Irrigation departments would begin the task of removing the identified encroachments this week. A revenue division-level committee would monitor the three-stage exercise. The district-level committee for the purpose was headed by the Joint Collector, he said.
“The committees will ensure removal of the encroachments apart from monitoring the irrigation sources to prevent occupations in future,” Mr. Lakshmisha told The Hindu.
Reconciliation report
Simultaneously, they had commenced the exercise of preparing a reconciliation report on crops and the extent of land under the existing irrigation sources in the district. Such data would be useful for future policies, said Mr. Lakshmisha.
At present, nearly 7 lakh acres of land gets irrigation facility across the district.
