Department working to provide water in fields throughout the year: Sahis

Ranchi: State’s Water Resources and Sanitation Minister Ramchandra Sahis said that his department was working to provide water in the fields of the farmers throughout the year for which an assessment is being done over the presence of water in different sources so that they can be utilized by constructing various means of irrigation schemes.

Addressing a press conference at the Suchana Bhawan here he said that the governments Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Raghubar Das were dedicated for the prosperity of the farmers and has set a target to double the income of the farmers of the state and therefore the department has increased its efforts to achieve the target.

The minister said that on 37 per cent agricultural land in the state irrigation facility has been provided which was just 16 per cent four years ago and irrigation facilities have also increased by 21 per cent and at present on 2.10 lakh hectares of land irrigation facility has been provided. He said that completing 71 pending irrigation schemes is the priority for the state government for which a sum of Rs 2096 crore has been approved and out of these 71 work on 16 projects has been completed and once all of them are finished irrigation facility will be available for additional 89,000 hectares of land. 

Mr Sahis said that the state government has given its nod to 7 new irrigation schemes on Rs 1796 crore will be spent. He said that under the minor irrigation scheme in the last four years construction of 1625 check dams and 62 wear schemes have been approved out of which 1300 check dams have been built and renovation of 134 ponds and other water bodies has also been done in the same period.