Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi has asserted that the government has given top priority to ensure drinking and irrigation water security to the people and has accordingly, taken up a series of projects like Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya in the State.

The government made maximum budgetary allocations to the sector and had completed restoration of 46,531 tanks through Mission Kakatiya across the State. Steps had been initiated to provide safe drinking water to every household through Mission Bhagiratha that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi two years ago, the Chief Secretary said.

According to an official release, the Chief Secretary participated in a video conference convened by Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha to review heatwave conditions and drought in different parts of the country. He said steps had been taken to ensure that people were not inconvenienced due to the scorching summer heat.

The first phase of the prestigious Kaleshwaram project, considered as lifeline for Telangana, would be completed by July this year. Though the water levels in the reservoirs were lower as compared to the same time previous year, the government was hopeful that the State would receive adequate rains during the upcoming monsoon season.

He said the State experienced heatwave like conditions for six days in April and 10 days this month and the government had alerted the district Collectors and other senior officials to constantly monitor the situation to meet any eventuality. He thanked the Karnataka government for releasing 2 tmcft of water to Telangana for meeting its drinking water requirements. Revenue department special Chief Secretary Rajeswar Tiwari and other senior officials participated in the video conference.