Secretary 15th Finance Commission Arvind Mehta is stated to have expressed his satisfaction over the spending of funds on various development projects.
Mr. Mehta, who visited some of the flagship programmes of Telangana government on Saturday, was reportedly astounded by the magnitude of the work being executed under the Kaleshwaram irrigation project to provide irrigation facility to 18 lakh acres and stabilise another 18 lakh acres, sources said.
“This is how infrastructure projects should be implemented. This is how poverty can be ameliorated and farmers helped,” Mr. Meha reportedly said after he had observed the work going on under Mission Bhagiratha drinking water supply project and Kaleshwaram project. The Central Finance Commission was also for comprehensive rural development and the State government’s efforts to provide drinking water to every household and provide irrigation facility to lakhs of acres were in tune with it.
Field visit
Mr. Mehta visited the 11th package Ranganayaki Sagar work, Annaram barrage work and Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi and Principal Secretary, Finance, K.Ramakrishna Rao, explained the features of Kaleshwaram project and Mission Bhagiratha project to the Finance Commission Secretary.
Mr. Mehata, who hails from Himachal Pradesh, is not new to tunnel constructions, but he was believed to have been impressed with the construction of structures, planning and pace of work of the Kaleshwaram project.
Mr. Mehta, who held a regional-level meeting with the finance secretaries of five southern States on Friday, basically directed the States to provide data on various parameters to the Commission. A full member commission meeting would be held few months later here when State would come out with its proposals on fund allocation.
