River Waters Issues: BRS Betrayed Telangana, Says Uttam
Uttam Kumar Reddy also made it clear that despite the enormity of the challenges on the Kaleshwaram project front, the Congress government was committed to finding ways to salvage the project considering the enormous amount of funds sunk into it by the then BRS government.
Hyderabad: Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday said that the Congress government in Telangana accused the previous BRS government of betraying Telangana’s long-term interests by compromising with Andhra Pradesh, allowing large-scale water diversion, engineering failures, and financial mismanagement.
During his two detailed presentations at the Praja Bhavan on Krishna river water issues, and the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, Uttam Kumar Reddy made it clear that the Congress party led state government will persist with its legal, technical, and administrative battles to reclaim the state’s rightful share of Krishna river waters.
Uttam Kumar Reddy also made it clear that despite the enormity of the challenges on the Kaleshwaram project front, the Congress government was committed to finding ways to salvage the project considering the enormous amount of funds sunk into it by the then BRS government.
He said Andhra Pradesh’s diversion of Krishna water to outside-basin areas surged from 245.3 TMCft between 2004–05 and 2014 to 1,192.44 TMCft between 2014–15 and 2023–24, following AP expanding Muchumarri Lift Irrigation Scheme and the creation of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS). These projects enhanced AP’s drawal capacity from the Srisailam reservoir to 11 TMCft per day.
The BRS government, he said, is fully responsible for Telangana’s current plight as it approved an unjust water-sharing with AP, first agreeing to a 299:512 TMCft formula in 2015 and later to a 34:66 ratio in 2017–18, which continued until 2020. “The BRS government even wrote to KRMB stating that the 34:66 formula should continue ‘since no other basis exists’.”
On the Kaleshwaram project issue, the minister said the project has turned into not just a physical but a financial disaster for Telangana. He slammed the BRS government's decision to abandon the Pranahita-Chevella project and instead take up the Kaleshwaram project. He said the original project had in-principle approval from the CWC with assured water availability and was designed to irrigate 16.4 lakh acres across seven districts through a gravity-lift combination with modest power requirements. By 2014, Rs 11,679 crore had already been spent, and the project was eligible for 80% Central assistance under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme scheme.
Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said the presentations clearly explained how Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Uttam Kumar Reddy are making sincere efforts to protect Telangana’s rightful share in the Krishna and Godavari rivers. He called on Congress leaders and elected representatives to take the facts to the people and counter the BRS propaganda and the opposition party’s claims that the Congress government is neglecting Krishna waters and is silent on Andhra Pradesh’s Banakacharla project.
Instead of spending Rs 1.45 crore under the guise of ‘Godavari redesign’, had the BRS government completed Krishna river projects initiated by the earlier Congress government, the ongoing Krishna water dispute would not have arisen, he said.
And had the Ichampally, Tupakulagudem, Devadula, Indira Sagar, Rajiv Sagar projects on Godavari been completed at just Rs 42,000 crore, then they could have irrigated 24 lakh acres in Telangana, he added.
