The minister was speaking to the media at the Secretariat after Rao at his press conference earlier in the day accused the Congress government of failing to protect the state’s river water rights: Reports
HYDERABAD: Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Sunday advised BRS president and former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to stop “lying” and trying to mislead the public on irrigation issues, and highlighted the government’s efforts to fight for Telangana’s water rights.
The minister was speaking to the media at the Secretariat after Rao at his press conference earlier in the day accused the Congress government of failing to protect the state’s river water rights. Uttam Kumar Reddy dismissed Rao’s claim that he (Uttam Kumar Reddy) wrote to the Centre saying 45 tmc ft of water was enough for the Palamaru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme. (PRLIS). “This is an outright lie,” he said.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said the communication was with respect to water saved through minor irrigation sources. “Whatever letters we are writing to the Centre are based on GOs issued by the BRS government. Wasn’t it KCR who agreed to 299 tmc ft of Krishna water for Telangana, while giving up 512 tmc to AP at the apex council meeting,” the minister asked and added: “Our government remains committed to completing all the pending projects.”
“Instead of levelling baseless allegations and warning of agitations, KCR should first apologise to the people of Telangana for destroying the irrigation sector,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.
Challenging the claim that the BRS government had completed 90 per cent of the PRLIS, the minister asserted that until and unless the Narlapur–Edula link canal was completed, no one could claim that the project was complete.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that before the bifurcation, AP used to utilise 4.1 tmc ft of water per day, which more than doubled under the BRS government to 9.6 tmc ft. “It was only after Congress came to power that the Rayalaseema lift irrigation scheme works were stopped. During the 10 years of BRS rule, Krishna waters were taken away in greater quantity and greater volume, compared to the combined state, illegally,” he alleged.
The minister reiterated that it was not the Congress that was targeting BRS for political reasons over misappropriation in irrigation projects. The accusations were upheld by national agencies after probes. “The level of corruption was indeed indicated not only by the judicial commission, but also by the vigilance commission. The NDSA (National Dam Safety Authority) expressed doubts, while the CAG has come up with its own reports. Irrespective of all this we are going ahead through all the legal means,” he pointed out.
Accusing the BRS of pushing the state into debt trap, Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the previous government which spent ₹1.8 lakh crore on the irrigation projects had borrowed ₹96,000 crore. “Despite the present government’s efforts to clear the debts inherited from the BRS regime, the state owes about ₹56,000 crore. For restructuring irrigation projects the Congress government borrowed at seven per cent interest rate in contrast to the 11 per cent by the previous government,” the minister said.
