Cong Govt Engineered Drought In State, Not El Nino: Harish
Harish Rao demanded that the government start operating the Kannepalli pumps and use available Godavari water: Reports
HYDERABAD: Former irrigation minister and senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao slammed the Congress government for blaming El Nino for the crisis that he said Telangana was facing on the irrigation and power supply fronts. The debate on Friday in the Legislative Assembly on El Nino conditions “made one thing clear,” he said, that the Congress government “is trying to blame nature for its own failures.”
Speaking to mediapersons, Harish Rao said: “This is not a drought brought by nature. It is a drought created by the Congress government and the failures of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. Instead of accepting responsibility for the shortage of water and power, the government is blaming El Nino.”
Harish Rao demanded that the government start operating the Kannepalli pumps and use available Godavari water, lift water from Medigadda towards Yellampalli wherever technically and legally permissible, operate available pumps at Kalwakurthy, Palamuru, Nettampadu, Bhima, Koilsagar and other irrigation projects so standing crops could be protected.
He also demanded that the government provide uninterrupted power to farmers and protect standing crops.
On power shortages, Harish Rao said, “Farmers are being forced to use diesel generators and spend around ₹1,500 a day to protect their crops.” Generation at the Yadadri Thermal Power Station was only around 1,500 MW against its 4,000 MW capacity because of coal shortages, while output at the thermal plant at Bhadradri was down by 540 MW due to technical problems. Another 800 MW at Kothagudem was also not being generated, he said.
Harish Rao also criticised irrigation minister Uttam Kumar Reddy’s statement in the Assembly that Telangana had used 84 tmc ft of water from Srisailam this year. Telangana, Harish Rao said, drew from the Krishna River from Srisailam, and the Kalwakurthy and Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation schemes. The facts were that while Andhra Pradesh had utilised around 83 tmc ft, Telangana, including the needs of Hyderabad’s drinking water, had used only around 43 tmc ft from Krishna, he added.
He said crops in nearly 3 lakh acres of ayacut under Nettampadu, Bhima, Koilsagar and Jurala were at risk. “The Revanth Reddy government could have requested the Congress government in Karnataka to release water from Almatti for a month and save the crops, but it has not done so,” he said.
