No Change In Palamuru Project Scope, BRS Spreading Lies: Uttam
The BRS was not facing up to the truth that it was the BRS government that explicitly instructed PRLIS project officials to go slow: Uttam Kumar Reddy
HYDERABAD: Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday dismissed the BRS’s allegations of neglect of the Palamuru Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme (PRLIS) and declared that the Congress government was committed to completing the project with its original 90 tmc ft water allocation.
Dismissing BRS allegations that the government had pruned the project to 45 tmc ft, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Congress government was following the government order issued by the then BRS government seeking 90 tmc ft of water for the project and had asked for the same from the Centre. “We are following that same GO without any changes,” he said.
The BRS was not facing up to the truth that it was the BRS government that explicitly instructed PRLIS project officials to go slow, he said. It was the BRS that was responding to the question on why the BRS government neglected the project and focused entirely on the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme.
“Instead,” he said, “the BRS is spreading misinformation and lies about the project's status.”
During an informal chat with reporters in the Assembly, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the GO issued by the then BRS government on August 18, 2022, was explicit that of the proposed 90 tmc ft of water for the project, 45 tmc ft would come from savings in minor irrigation schemes and another 45 tmc ft from Telangana's share due to Andhra Pradesh's diversion of Godavari water. “This is exactly what we have said. No changes are being made from the original plan to use 90 tmc ft overall for the project,” he added.
Despite the BRS government spending ₹27,000 crore on PRLIS, it had not irrigated a single acre, he said. On BRS allegations that the Congress government neglected PRLIS, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Congress government, in the last two years, had spent ₹7,000 crore installing 11 pumps and accelerating works by doing works of 67-lakhs cubic metres of earth work, 7-lakhs cubic metres of concrete work and laying 9 km of pressure mains of project.
Even while the BRS pursued all clearances for the KLIS, it did nothing to get the required Central Water Commission (CWC), or environment, or hydrology clearances for the Palamuru project. “They have much to answer for. They planned to cut PRLIS capacity from 2 tmc ft a day to 1 tmc ft, while at the same time, increasing the Kaleshwaram capacity from 2 tmc ft to 3 tmc ft per day,” he said.
“The BRS which spent ₹1.83 lakh crore in 10 years on irrigation, did not find funds to complete PRLIS, Kalwalurthy, Nettempadu, Bhima, Koilsagar, SLBC tunnel, Dindi, and Udaya Samudram projects that would have benefited erstwhile unified Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts. Why was this neglect?” he asked.