However Sliced, Medigadda Trumps Tummidihatti: Harish

Former irrigation minister and BRS deputy floor leader in Assembly, T. Harish Rao, on Monday said Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and the Congress government’s efforts to convince Maharashtra to agree to a 152 metre tall

barrage at Tummidihatti were being mounted after they missed the real point.

“There is not enough water at Tummidihatti. When the BRS government was pursuing the issue with Maharashtra, the Central Water Commission made it clear that the envisaged 160 tmc ft of water was not available there. It said this thrice and told us to look for an alternate site,” Harish Rao said at a press conference.

“Water is available only at Medigadda. As much as 240 tmc ft a year. Irrespective of its critics, the Kaleshwaram project is a boon to

Telangana,” Harish Rao said.

If the Congress government was so keen why did it wait for 1,054 days after it came to power to discuss the issue with Maharashtra? When the BRS came to power, we pursued the issue within six months of coming to power, Harish Rao said.

This government wants to spend around `25,000 crore to build a new barrage at Tummidihatti and lift water from there to Sundilla barrage. Instead of spending so much money to bring less water to Sundilla, the government must realise a ready made option is available at Medigadda, from where more water can be pumped to Sundilla, Harish Rao said.

Reiterating that the current drought in the state was ‘Congress made’, Harish Rao demanded a white paper on how much water was pumped from Devadula and Kalwakurthy projects. “The government does not want to place the facts

before people because that would prove that Congress caused the drought,” Harish Rao said.