The city's canal cleaning drive initiated by the district
administration and irrigation department has come to a standstill due
to scarcity of funds. The cleaning of five canals under Kochi
Corporation was handed over to the irrigation department in July 2011
after a review meeting.
As part of this drive, the irrigation department had agreed to clean Thevara-Perandoor canal, Edappally canal, Changadampokku canal, Karanakodam canal and the Ernakulam market canal. An official in the irrigation department said it is yet to get technical and administrative sanction.
Hari Narayanan, executive engineer, district irrigation division, said the department is planning to desilt canals and strengthen its boundary walls. "The work which is yet to be carried out requires huge money and the authorities have not taken any measures to find the required funds. Cleaning the canals will roughly cost Rs 16 crore," he said. The executive engineer added that the department had submitted the proposal to National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). "They have now allotted Rs 6.68 crore for cleaning Edappally canal. Nabard said the limit for this year's fund allotment is over and it will consider releasing the balance in the next fiscal," he said.
A senior official in the irrigation department said most canals are encroached, and hence can't be cleaned. "Many canals have been levelled and have illegal construction. These details are available with the revenue department. Unless they find a solution, we cannot move ahead," said the official.
While the authorities are considering this as a solution to the city's water clogging problems during the monsoons, the corporation has washed its hands off saying they don't have sufficient funds.
"We have already handed over the project to the irrigation department. The corporation does not have sufficient money for the project and we expect that the funds will be released in the next budget," said T K Ashraf, chairman, health standing committee.
The canal cleaning drive, a project initiated by the district administration and irrigation department has come to a stand still ate due to scarcity of funds. The project to clean five major canals coming under Kochi Corporation was handed over to the irrigation department in July 2011 after a review meeting of the irrigation department.
As a part of the cleaning drive, the irrigation department had agreed to clean the Thevara - Perandoor Canal, Edappally Canal, Changadampokku Canal, Karanakodam Canal and the Ernakulam market canal. Officials in the irrigation department said that the project was yet to get technical and administrative sanction.
Hari Narayanan, executive engineer, irrigation division Ernakulam said that the department was planning to desilt the canals and strengthen the boundary walls. "The work that has to be carried out requires huge amount of money and the authorities have not taken any measures to find funds for carrying out the cleaning drive," he said. "We have prepared a rough estimate to clean the five canals and it comes to around Rs 16 crore," he said.
The executive engineer said that the department had submitted the proposal to National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and they kept it aside asking us to revise the proposal. "After submitting the revised proposal, they have now allotted Rs. 6.68 crore for cleaning the Edappally canal. When contacted, NABARD said that the limit for the year's fund allotment was already over and will consider releasing the balance amount in next financial year" he said.
A senior official in the irrigation department said that most of these canals are encroached in all possible manner and they alone cannot carry out the cleaning drive. "Many of the canals are levelled by private parties and have made illegal constructions and the details regarding this are available with the revenue department. Unless the revenue department finds a solution to this, we cannot move ahead," said the official.
While the authorities are considering this as a solution to the water clogging in the city during monsoon, the corporation has washed its hands off saying they don't have sufficient funds. "We have already handed over the project to the irrigation department. The corporation don't have sufficient funds for the project and we expect that the funds for the project will be released in the next budget," said TK Ashraf, health standing committee chairman.
As part of this drive, the irrigation department had agreed to clean Thevara-Perandoor canal, Edappally canal, Changadampokku canal, Karanakodam canal and the Ernakulam market canal. An official in the irrigation department said it is yet to get technical and administrative sanction.
Hari Narayanan, executive engineer, district irrigation division, said the department is planning to desilt canals and strengthen its boundary walls. "The work which is yet to be carried out requires huge money and the authorities have not taken any measures to find the required funds. Cleaning the canals will roughly cost Rs 16 crore," he said. The executive engineer added that the department had submitted the proposal to National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). "They have now allotted Rs 6.68 crore for cleaning Edappally canal. Nabard said the limit for this year's fund allotment is over and it will consider releasing the balance in the next fiscal," he said.
A senior official in the irrigation department said most canals are encroached, and hence can't be cleaned. "Many canals have been levelled and have illegal construction. These details are available with the revenue department. Unless they find a solution, we cannot move ahead," said the official.
While the authorities are considering this as a solution to the city's water clogging problems during the monsoons, the corporation has washed its hands off saying they don't have sufficient funds.
"We have already handed over the project to the irrigation department. The corporation does not have sufficient money for the project and we expect that the funds will be released in the next budget," said T K Ashraf, chairman, health standing committee.
The canal cleaning drive, a project initiated by the district administration and irrigation department has come to a stand still ate due to scarcity of funds. The project to clean five major canals coming under Kochi Corporation was handed over to the irrigation department in July 2011 after a review meeting of the irrigation department.
As a part of the cleaning drive, the irrigation department had agreed to clean the Thevara - Perandoor Canal, Edappally Canal, Changadampokku Canal, Karanakodam Canal and the Ernakulam market canal. Officials in the irrigation department said that the project was yet to get technical and administrative sanction.
Hari Narayanan, executive engineer, irrigation division Ernakulam said that the department was planning to desilt the canals and strengthen the boundary walls. "The work that has to be carried out requires huge amount of money and the authorities have not taken any measures to find funds for carrying out the cleaning drive," he said. "We have prepared a rough estimate to clean the five canals and it comes to around Rs 16 crore," he said.
The executive engineer said that the department had submitted the proposal to National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and they kept it aside asking us to revise the proposal. "After submitting the revised proposal, they have now allotted Rs. 6.68 crore for cleaning the Edappally canal. When contacted, NABARD said that the limit for the year's fund allotment was already over and will consider releasing the balance amount in next financial year" he said.
A senior official in the irrigation department said that most of these canals are encroached in all possible manner and they alone cannot carry out the cleaning drive. "Many of the canals are levelled by private parties and have made illegal constructions and the details regarding this are available with the revenue department. Unless the revenue department finds a solution to this, we cannot move ahead," said the official.
While the authorities are considering this as a solution to the water clogging in the city during monsoon, the corporation has washed its hands off saying they don't have sufficient funds. "We have already handed over the project to the irrigation department. The corporation don't have sufficient funds for the project and we expect that the funds for the project will be released in the next budget," said TK Ashraf, health standing committee chairman.
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