HYDERABAD: BRS working president K T Rama Rao has accused the Congress government of pushing Telangana towards drought despite abundant flows in the Godavari. He alleged that lakhs of cusecs of water were flowing downstream while the government had failed to operate the Kannepalli pump house to lift water into reservoirs across the Godavari basin.
Addressing the media at Telangana Bhavan on Saturday, he asserted that the Medigadda barrage was not required for lifting water from Kannepalli. He claimed reservoirs across the Godavari basin could be filled without closing even a single gate at Medigadda. He said water could be lifted whenever the river level at Kannepalli reached 93 metres and that, with the present level at around 97 metres, the pumps could be operated immediately.
According to him, one tmcft of water could be lifted every day and nearly 200 tmcft stored over the next 100 days in reservoirs, including Mid Manair, Lower Manair, Mallannasagar, Kondapochammasagar, Ananthagiri, Malkapet and Baswapur, thereby averting irrigation and drinking water shortages across large parts of Telangana.
He further alleged that Revanth was diverting attention by repeatedly referring to Medigadda while neighbouring Andhra Pradesh was lifting Godavari water through the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme. Dismissing the chief minister’s claim that Kaleshwaram waters could flood Bhadrachalam, KTR said Medigadda had no connection with the temple town and that any flood threat there was linked to the Polavaram project, not Kaleshwaram.
He also claimed that the Medigadda barrage had withstood an unprecedented flood of 28.5 lakh cusecs and accused Revanth of falsely claiming that it could not withstand much smaller flows.
He further alleged that photographs taken during the 2022 floods were being circulated to falsely suggest that the Kannepalli pump house had been submerged.
Accusing the government of deliberately refusing to lift water despite repeated appeals from retired engineers, political parties and farmers, KTR questioned how AP continued to operate the Pattiseema project if, as the chief minister claimed, there was insufficient water at Kannepalli.
The former minister further alleged that Revanth lacked even basic knowledge of Telangana’s irrigation projects.