Harish, Etala and Tummala Cabinet Panel Favoured KLIS, Justice Ghose Told

Hyderabad: A Cabinet sub-committee constituted by the then BRS government with three ministers recommended that instead of the Pranahita-Chevella Lift Irrigation Scheme, the government should take up the revamped Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, the Justice P.C. Ghose led commission of inquiry was informed on Wednesday.
During a cross-examination by Justice Ghose, Telangana Water Resources Development Corporation’s former chairman and BRS leader V. Prakash Rao said the committee led by then irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, with the then finance minister Etala Rajender along with then public works department minister Tummala Nageswara Rao had okayed the plans to go ahead with the KLIS project.
Prakash Rao, responding to questions from Justice Ghose, agreed with the commission that a committee of experts, comprising senior retired irrigation engineers, recommended against taking up the new scheme and building a barrage at Medigadda pointing out that it would not be technically and economically a sound solution. He, however, said though the experts committee may have arrived at this conclusion, in its report, it also mentioned four times how Medigadda could be a right choice for a barrage.
People were demanding for ayacut stabilisation in 18.75 lakh acres under various medium irrigation projects which needed water and KLIS was the solution to address this issue, he said.
Prakash Rao also said that the view in the previous BRS government was that a barrage as planned under PRLIS at Tummidihatti would be able to use only around 44 tmc feet of water from the available 102 tmc feet share of water at Tummidihatti and it was estimated that the state would require some 200 tmc ft of water that can be lifted up to Manair to provide irrigation to additional land as well as for stabilisation of 18.75 lakh acres of ayacut under various medium irrigation projects, which could be fed water from the Kaleshwaram scheme.