Elections To WUAs: Revenue, irrigation officials asked to work in coordination

Bhimavaram: West Godavari District Collector Chadalavada Nagarani has instructed the revenue and irrigation officers to work in coordination to conduct elections to Water Users Associations (WUAs) in the district and prepare the lists of territorial constituencies by October 31.

She held a meeting with the officials of Revenue and Water Resources departments on the election process of Water Users Associations at the Collectorate here on Thursday.

On the occasion, she said that the elections to WUAs were held way back in 2015. They are being held now in 2024. She pointed out that tahsildars and AEs of the Water Resources Department have been appointed as authorised officers for the respective mandals.

The Collector said that the election process of WUAs started on October 21 and it will end on November 29. Since the election process of irrigation societies has started, revenue and irrigation officials should work together to prepare voter lists based on local ayacut and revenue records.

The RDOs should provide proper awareness to the lower-level staff on election issues. She said that every project committee will have 20 water distribution committees under its purview.

She said that the notification for the election has been issued to total 112 Water User Associations in the district, out of which 98 are major irrigation and 14 are minor irrigation associations.

She said that within the territorial constituencies, there will be 12 members for 98 WUAs and six members forer 14 WUAs. Hence the total members will be 1,260. She said that nodal officers have already been identified and appointed as master trainers.

After preparing the voter lists, they should be displayed at the tahsildar office, MPDO office and gram panchayat. Lists should be prepared so that no eligible voter is left out.

While a gazetted officer will be appointed as election officer, there will be an election officer for the conduct of WUA elections. A polling officer and an assistant polling officer will be appointed for the election of regional constituency members. She said that the tahsildars of the respective mandals will have to coordinate the entire election process. Joint Collector T Rahul Kumar Reddy, DRO J Udaya Bhaskara Rao, district irrigation department officer P Nagarjuna Rao, RDOs Dasiraju, K Praveen Kumar Reddy, Y Bhavani Shankari, irrigation department assistant engineer AV Venkateswara Rao, tahsildars of all mandals of the district, irrigation department DEs, AEs and others participated in the meeting.