Khammam: The Congress leaders alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was doing injustice to the farmers of Khammam and Bhadradi-Kothagudem districts.
Congress leaders – Bellam Venu, ZPTC and party leaders V. Upender, Naveen, Venkateswarlu and Veerababu, in a joint press meet here on Wednesday, said that the district would turn into a desert if the government built a barrage at Tupakulagudem on Godavari river.
“Sitarama lift irrigation project (SLIP) will not get water if the barrage and there is built and there will be no chance of irrigation of lands in the two districts if the barrage comes up. It is nothing but humiliation of the irrigation projects of the two districts by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao,” said Bellam Venu.
The CM asked the engineers to make plans to construct a barrage at Tupakulagudem on Godavari river and the engineering experts visited the place. The final report on it will be submitted to the government soon.
The project at Medigadda had prevented water from reaching River Godavari at Dummugudem anicut. Construction of a barrage at Dummugudem will ruin the two districts with no irrigation water.
Mr Venu recalled the closure of Bharat Heavy Water Plant due to lack of water in Godavari river. “It is the first time in 28 years of factory history that faced such situation”, he said.
He said that SLIP should be redesigned to depend on the backwaters of Polavaram project. “If not so, thousands of crores of rupees of people’s money will go waste. Then the people in the future generations will not excuse the CM for this mistake,” he said.
