Hyderabad: The Telangana Congress is trying to corner the TRS government with a Haryana “sump” model project that avoids submergence of huge tracts of lands. The party wants the government to scrap the Mallannasagar reservoir for irrigation, but have one for industrial and drinking water. Congress finds Hathni Kund barrage across Yamuna River in Haryana state an ideal example where the canal is widened and deepened like a sump at a point to store water instead of constructing massive reservoirs.
Leaders of the Opposition in the Legislative Council and Assembly, Mohd Ali Shabbir and K. Jana Reddy have left for New Delhi on Monday to study the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hathni Kund project in Haryana. Former minister M. Shashidhar Reddy who heads Forum for Utilisation of Godavari Waters, had visited the project and finds it suitable for TS too. “We will study the Haryana project in view of its ideal design. Congress wants irrigation projects, but not at the cost of massive displacement of the people. The state should look into alternative designs like Hathni Kund,” Mr Shabbir Ali told DC.
Mr Shashidhar Reddy, who gave a presentation on Haryana project, quoting former Engineer-in-Chief and UN consultant T. Hanumantha Rao, said there was no need to construct reservoirs to store 160 tmc ft water for irrigation. “The water can go through distributaries and canals directly to the fields like the JLN project in Haryana. The cardinal principle for deciding the need for a reservoir is when water at the source is available for lesser number of days than the duration of crop, which is generally 120 days,” he said.
Mr Shashidhar Reddy added: “This lift draws water from the sump on JLN feeder line and pumped to two districts —Mahendragarh and Rewari. Water travels due to gravity and is pumped at higher level.” He said that the water is available at the source under Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation scheme for 120 days. “There is no need for any storage. There is no need for 50 tmc ft capacity Mallannasagar reservoirs,” he said.
