The Irrigation Advisory Board (IAB) of Krishna district has declared crop holiday for the next rabi season. The board, which met here on Monday, reviewed the irrigation works in the district. It also felt the need to complete the modernisation work on the Krishna Eastern Branch canal, planned at Rs 147.70 crore in 2008.
Avanigadda legislator, Ambati Brahmanaiah, and his Machilipatnam counterpart, Perni Venkatramaiah, expressed concern over the delay in the modernisation work. They said farmers were ready to skip this rabi season, if the IAB assured them of completing the modernisation work.
Animal husbandry and fisheries minister KP Saradhi and district collector Peeyush Kumar have directed superintending engineer to ensure that modernisation works were taken up during the crop holiday.
The crop holiday would affect over 100,000 acres in the eastern part of the Krishna delta. The modernisation of the 70 km of the canal and its sub-channels, including drains, is expected to take two more years. The collector instructed irrigation officials to ensure 50 per cent of the work was complete during this season, till June 2011.