SURYAPET: Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday said the Congress government was determined to secure Telangana’s rightful share of Krishna river waters, correcting what he called a “historic betrayal” by the previous BRS regime.
Addressing the media in Chintalapalem mandal, Uttam accused the BRS of surrendering Telangana’s rights by accepting a mere 299 tmcft out of the total 811 tmcft water allocation from the Krishna river, leaving 512 tmcft to Andhra Pradesh. “It wasn’t a negotiation; it was a sellout, and in writing,” he said.
He said the Congress government has reversed this approach and reopened the case before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal, demanding a 70:30 share for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, respectively, based on catchment area, cultivable land, drought conditions and population. “Our goal is to green the drought-hit districts of Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda and Khammam through targeted irrigation,” he said.
‘KLIS, a monument of waste’
Slamming the BRS’s record, Uttam called the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project a “historic blunder” that cost the state `1 lakh crore while leaving farmers high and dry.
“If the BRS had stuck to the original Pranahita-Chevella project planned by the Congress at Rs 38,000 crore, Telangana could have completed 10 major irrigation projects. Instead, Rs 62,000 crore was sunk into a single failed project with three collapsed barrages,” he said.
He accused the previous BRS government of scrapping the efficient and cost-effective blueprint prepared under former chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy and opting for an inflated project at Medigadda for political optics. “This wasn’t irrigation, it was inflation,” he said, alleging massive corruption and calling Kaleshwaram a “non-functional project with irreversible financial loss”.
Uttam said the Rs 62,000 crore wasted on KLIP could have completed long-pending Krishna basin projects such as Palamuru-Rangareddy, Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, Bhima, Koilsagar, Dindi, Devadula, Sitarama Sagar and the SLBC tunnel.
“Instead of building a robust irrigation network, BRS built a monument of waste. We could have solved the irrigation crisis permanently,” he said.