HYDERABAD: BJP MP Eatala Rajender on Friday urged the state government to immediately repair the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), saying the project should not be discredited because of design defects and damage to some of its components. He warned that failing to restore the project could leave Telangana vulnerable to drought and deepen farmers’ distress.
Addressing a press conference at his residence, the Malkajgiri MP alleged that despite heavy inflows into reservoirs following rains in the upper riparian states, the government had failed to operate the pumps, depriving farmers of irrigation water during the crucial agricultural season. He said cultivation under the SRSP canal system was not possible without borewells and open wells if canal water was not released.
Recalling that the Telangana movement was fought for “water, funds and self-respect”, Rajender urged political parties not to lose sight of those principles. He noted that the plan to utilise Pranahita waters was conceived during the tenure of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy under the Jalayagnam programme, with projects such as Sripada Yellampalli and Mid Manair initiated during that period.
He said the KLIS was later developed after Telangana’s formation through the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages to lift water to the Sripada Yellampalli reservoir. According to him, the 29 tmcft of water currently stored in Mid Manair had reached the reservoir through the Kaleshwaram system, enabling farmers in parts of Huzurabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Nalgonda districts to cultivate two crops a year.
Rajender said Telangana’s interests would always come before party or personal considerations and asserted that his stand on Kaleshwaram was guided solely by public interest.