Won’t Lose Single Drop of Telangana’s Water: Uttam

Nalgonda: Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Friday asserted that the Telangana government would not allow the loss of even a single drop of the state’s rightful share of water from the Krishna and Godavari rivers.

Along with agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, the irrigation minister held a review meeting with officials at Dammapeta in Aswaraopet mandal of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district after inspecting works at the fourth pump house of the Sitarama Lift Irrigation Scheme (LIS).

Addressing the meeting, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the state government would not compromise on protecting Telangana’s share of river waters and had clearly conveyed its stand to the Centre, the Krishna Water Tribunal and the Supreme Court. He said the government would oppose projects such as Polavaram and Nallamalla Sagar in Andhra Pradesh, which could adversely affect Telangana’s irrigation interests. The state would continue its fight to safeguard its water rights, he added.

He recalled that 968 TMC ft of water from the Godavari river had already been allocated to Telangana and said all necessary permissions for the Sitarama LIS were obtained after ensuring the availability of 75 per cent of the allocated water. The project was also designed to meet drinking water requirements. He alleged that the previous BRS government neglected the Sitarama LIS, leaving it incomplete despite being in power for 10 years. After coming to power, the Congress government sanctioned Rs 19,324 crore for the project and expedited the works. Once completed, irrigation facilities would be provided to 6.74 lakh acres in the erstwhile Khammam district through the scheme.

Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao said irrigation could be extended to farmers in Pinapaka, Kothagudem, Aswaraopet, Wyra and Sathupally during this year itself if distributary canals in these Assembly constituencies were completed on priority. He said Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had approved revised estimates of Rs 4,000 crore for the distributary canal works and tenders would be floated soon. He noted that distributary canals were not included in the project earlier. He added that works on three pump houses, 18 link canals and the Rajiv canal were nearing completion, which would help provide irrigation facilities to the Wyra Assembly constituency. Ashwaraopet MLA Jare Adinarayana, Sathupally MLA Matta Ragamayi and irrigation department officials also attended the review meeting.