TIRUPATI: Rayalaseema Intellectuals Forum (RIF) convenor M Purushotham Reddy has felt that the allocation of Rs 5,300 crore in the Union Budget 2023-24 for the Upper Bhadra project in Karnataka, which has no legitimacy, besides Centre’s move to accord national project status to it, will only increase water woes of Rayalaseema.
Speaking to mediapersons on Tuesday, the RIF convenor and retired SVU professors Jayachandra Reddy and Prayaga accused the Centre of acting against the federal spirit by allocating funds for the project, instead of preventing it.The intellectuals stated that the Centre had gone ahead with the Upper Bhadra stage-1 extension without considering the Supreme Court’s stay order and cleared the stage-2 forest approval for the project in 2017.
The Central Water Commission had further given technical sanctions allocating 29.90 TMC of water in 2020 to the lift irrigation scheme ignoring the multiple objections raised by the AP government. Further, the Ministry of Jal Shakti with Rs 1,625 crore estimates had recommended according the national project status to the Upper Bhadra project, which was realised in the latest budget wherein the Centre allocated Rs 5,300 crore for its completion.
The drought-prone Rayalaseema region, which was already deprived of Krishna water, has now faced the threat of losing Tungabhadra water in the form of the Upper Bhadra project. Uncertainty looms large over the lift irrigation schemes and projects in the drought-prone Rayalaseema region now, they pointed out.
Bring pressure on Centre to stop project, govt told
At this juncture, the ruling YSRC in tandem with the opposition parties should wage a united struggle in the ongoing Parliament session and bring pressure on the Centre to immediately stop the Upper Bhadra project in Karnataka, the Rayalaseema Intellectuals Forum said