HYDERABAD: Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday requested the Centre to sanction Rs 800 crore under the National Mission on Micro Irrigation (NMMI). The chief minister said the state government has a good track record of utilising the funds provided under the National Mission on Micro Irrigation. In a letter to Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, the chief minister said the existing allocation from the NMMI to the ongoing Andhra Pradesh Micro Irrigation Project (APMIP) would not be sufficient to address this special project for SC/ST lands. He said the government would be able to adjust `500 crore towards the outlay of Rs 2,100 crore for the project from the APMIP, but the state requires another Rs 1,600 crore of which Rs 800 crore could be met from MGNREGS and the balance Rs 800 crore may be sanctioned under NMMI. While Maharashtra has 15.05 lakh acres under micro-drip irrigation, Andhra Pradesh has 14.17 lakh acres and Karnataka has 5.75 lakh acres under micro-drip irrigation. The chief minister said a path-breaking irrigation project named ‘Indira Jala Prabha’ has been launched for irrigating 10 lakh acres of fallow land belonging to poorest of poor SC/ST households in conjunction with NABARD-RIDF, he said.
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