Hyderabad: Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday ordered faster payments to affected farmers. He said about Rs 813 crore remained pending for disbursal at the district level.
Uttam told District Collectors and Irrigation officials to release money on a war footing. He said funds already released for land acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) had to reach farmers without delay.
He reviewed the issue with District Collectors through a video conference. The review covered land acquisition, R&R and payments to affected farmers. During the meeting, Uttam voiced concern over the Rs 813 crore still held in district accounts. The money was with Collectors, Revenue Divisional Officers and Special Deputy Collectors.
Officials said they had filed tokens worth about Rs 3,101 crore since April 1. They added that the government had released around Rs 2,504 crore for land acquisition and R&R. Of the amount then pending, about Rs 502 crore was with Land Acquisition Officers. Another Rs 311 crore was with District Collectors.
Transport and BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar also joined the review. Chief Secretary Sanjay Jaju took part as well. Secretary to the Chief Minister Manik Raj attended the meeting. Finance Secretary Sandeep Sultania also joined. Land Acquisition Commissioner Siva Kumar Naidu took part as well. District Collectors from the State took part in the video conference.
Payments to affected farmers must not be delayed
Uttam said funds should not sit in government accounts while irrigation works faced delays. He asked Collectors to step in and speed up talks, awards and payments to affected farmers.
“If the money has been released, it must reach the land-losing farmers. If for any genuine reason it cannot be disbursed, explain the reason and return the money instead of keeping it idle,” he said.
He recalled that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had committed Rs 6,000 crore during 2026 for land needs linked to irrigation works. The commitment also covered R&R and forest-related needs.
Uttam said the Rs 6,000 crore was meant to help put irrigation projects on a faster track. He said the government was arranging the funds outside the regular Irrigation budget. As a result, he said a lack of money should not slow priority works. The minister asked Collectors to match fund requests with cases that were ready for payment.
He also told officials to raise tokens only after they had passed awards. Instead, he said they should raise tokens only when cases were ready for actual payment. At the same time, Uttam called for a fair and humane approach to farmers who gave up land. He said the government did not want officials to treat them unfairly.
“The government does not want to be unfair to farmers while taking away their land. Compensation should, within the legal framework and due process, be as close as reasonably possible to prevailing market values,” he said. He said the process must stay within the law and follow due process. Still, he wanted the amount paid to reflect market values as closely as the law allowed.
Where officials had passed an award but still owed payment, he asked them to pay statutory interest when the law required it. That direction also formed part of the push for timely payments to affected farmers.
Legal disputes slowed payments to affected farmers
Uttam also reviewed cases held up by court cases or disputes over title. He asked officials to make a full list of all such pending matters. The minister said officials should take the list to the Advocate General. He wanted focused legal action on cases that had blocked awards or payments.
Meanwhile, Uttam reviewed district-wise hurdles in Nalgonda and Yadadri-Bhongir. He also examined cases in Narayanpet, Siddipet, Vikarabad, Jagtial and Hanumakonda. In Nalgonda district, he reviewed delays linked to the Chintapalli reservoir. He also took up the Pendlipaka balancing reservoir, Udayasamudram and Nellikallu.
Uttam stressed the need to finish land acquisition for the Pendlipaka balancing reservoir. He said the reservoir was key to gaining the full benefit of the SLBC tunnel after its completion. “If the tunnel is completed but land acquisition for the balancing reservoir remains unfinished, the investment cannot yield the intended benefit,” he said.
Therefore, he asked Collectors to cut the time taken at each stage. He said two or three weeks should not be treated as normal office time for such work. Uttam said land acquisition had become a key issue because several irrigation projects were already largely complete. Yet small pending works still held back their benefits.
He cited distributary canals and connecting works among those gaps. He also referred to short stretches where officials still had to acquire land. The minister said such gaps could hold back the benefits of projects in which major work had already been done. He linked faster payments to affected farmers with quicker progress on those pending stretches.
Payments to affected farmers linked to project progress
Uttam asked Collectors to take direct charge of local delays. He told them to speed up talks with land losers and help complete awards. Once a case was ready, he said the money should reach the farmer quickly. If officials could not make payment for a genuine reason, they had to state why.
He also said officials should return unused funds instead of leaving them idle. That approach kept funds tied to cases that were ready to move. Chief Secretary Sanjay Jaju also called for careful use of public funds. He told Collectors to seek money when cases were ready for payment.
Jaju said funds should not remain idle in bank accounts. Instead, officials should ask for money in line with the stage reached in each case. The review also covered the need to clear legal and office hurdles before officials sought fresh funds. Uttam told officials to keep awards, R&R and payments to affected farmers moving together.
He said the State had many irrigation works where most construction was already complete. However, small gaps in land acquisition or link works were still delaying the intended benefits. Uttam asked officials to shorten those delays while keeping the process fair to farmers. He also told them to ensure that released funds reached eligible land losers without delay.