Krishnadevaraya's Name Axed from Irrigation Project

HYDERABAD: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare might have said it centuries ago, but now, the Andhra Pradesh government believes that a name makes everything for it.

Proving this, the State government seems to be continuing its practice of renaming all the irrigation projects and government schemes, which were christened by the previous Congress governments. The AP government on Thursday renamed Sri Krishnadevaraya Galeru-Nagari Sujala Sravanthi Project as Galeru-Nagari Sujala Sravanthi Irrigation Project. It also changed the name of Ananta Venkata Reddy Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi Project as Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi Irrigation Project. The government issued two separate GOs to this effect.

The TDP government on Thursday removed the names of State Congress leaders from the government projects. Lending credence to this argument, Ananta Venkata Reddy Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi Project was  renamed as Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi Irrigation Project.

Much to the chagrin of many, the government even dropped the name of “Sri Krishnadevaraya” from Sri Krishnadevaraya Galeru-Nagari Sujala Sravanthi Project by renaming it as Galeru-Nagari Sujala Sravanthi Irrigation Project, which is in Kadapa district.

However, government’s decision to drop the name of great emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire, who had reigned from 1509-1529, might attract criticism from various quarters as the entire ‘Rayalaseema’ region was called after him.

Earlier Examples

•  State government recently renamed the Rajiv Aarogyasri Health Insurance Scheme as “Dr Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Aarogya Seva”.
•  It dropped the name of Rajiv from Rajiv Yuva Shakti scheme, and restored the scheme’s original name, Chief Minister’s Empowerment of Youth (CMEY).
•  It also renamed Indira Jala Prabha Project as “NTR Jala Siri”
•  Most recently, it dropped the name of Indira Sagar from Polavaram Irrigation Project.