Hyderabad, Oct 8th: The Andhra Pradesh government directed all District Collectors of the affected districts to take up immediate restoration of all small tanks with ayacut less than 100 acres under NREGS as per the guidelines of Rural Development Department. The government said in order to bring the sources to their original standards and to make them suitable for regular irrigation, it is necessary to take-up permanent restoration to the minor irrigation sources. Permission is accorded for giving Administrative Sanction for breach works up to Rs 10 lakh to the district level committee under the chairmanship of District Collector and up to Rs 50 lakh to the Chief Engineer, Minor Irrigation, as per the guidelines given in the Annexure.

In view of urgency, permission is accorded to call for short tenders with seven days duly relaxing the normal tender period of a minimum of 14 days. In addition to NREGS, the order directed that to the possible extent permanent restoration must be taken up instead of immediate restoration. Teams are formed at district level for supervision and timely verification of all the restoration works. Regular progress reports of the restoration work shall be submitted to the Commissioner, CADA and Chief Engineer concerned. Photographs must be taken before, during and after restoration work invariably. Due to heavy cyclonic rains from September 30 to October 4 many minor irrigation sources have been reported to have breached and damaged in the flood affected districts, Mehboobnagar, Kurnool, Nalgonda, Krishna, Prakasam, Khammam, Ranga Reddy, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram. In order to store water it is essential to restore the damaged sources immediately.