BHUPALPALLY: Telangana Rakshana Sena (TRS) chief Kalvakuntla Kavitha on Monday set a November-end deadline for the state government to construct a temporary cofferdam at Kannepalli Pump House to divert Pranahita river water to reservoirs and tackle drought conditions, warning of protests at the site if the demand was not met.
After inspecting the river’s flow at Kannepalli Pump House, she said nearly 2 tmcft of water was going unused daily despite farmers facing a shortage. She proposed constructing a cofferdam at 93 metres above the pump house to divert water to the Annaram and Sundilla reservoirs, bypassing the damaged Medigadda barrage.
Kavitha said the `25 crore cofferdam could be built in 45 days and offered to submit the proposal for review. She urged simultaneous repairs to Medigadda, criticising the Congress government for failing to irrigate new acreage despite spending `26,000 crore and the previous BRS regime for leaving Kaleshwaram canal networks incomplete despite spending `1.80 lakh crore.
Kavitha said crops had been sown on 1.10 crore acres out of Telangana’s 1.36 crore acres of arable land and required urgent water and power supplies. She urged the government to procure additional power to protect crops.