HYDERABAD: BRS leader T Harish Rao on Monday demanded that the state government withdraw the letter written to the Union government seeking only 45 tmcft water allocation for the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS).
Speaking to reporters here, the former minister said that the BRS government secured seven approvals, including environmental clearance, for the PRLIS.
He also demanded that the Centre protect the rights of Telangana in irrigation water.
Objecting to comments made by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy during an informal chat with reporters on Sunday, he said: “If the chief minister wanted to respond to questions raised by KCR, he should have called a proper press meet and presented his version.”
“KCR spoke like a statesman and Revanth Reddy like a street rowdy,” he alleged.
Refuting the allegations levelled by Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Harish Rao asked: “Weren’t crops under Mallanasagar and Ranganayakasagar raised with Kaleshwaram waters?”
“By digging just a two-km-long canal, this government can provide water to farmers under PRLIS,” he said and recalled that the BRS government completed the construction of Edula, Vatten, Karivena and Uddandapur reservoirs.
Harish Rao said that the BRS never accepted the 512:299 share in Krishna river waters. “KCR opposed it. That’s why the BRS government demanded the Centre refer the matter to a Tribunal under Section 3 of the Interstate Water Disputes Act,” he said.
The former minister claimed that the BRS government provided irrigation to 17.24 lakh acres of new ayacut and stabilised another 31.5 lakh acres of ayacut between 2014 and 2023. Irrigation was provided to 48.74 lakh acres in nine years of BRS rule, the BRS leader added.
“But the Congress government, which promised to create an ayacut of 6,55,895 acres in 2024–25 and another 5,05,000 acres in 2025–26, failed to provide irrigation to even 11,000 acres,” he alleged.