Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president K.T. Rama Rao accused the Congress government and the BJP of acting together to keep the Kaleshwaram project idle despite large quantities of Godavari water flowing into the sea. He claimed the government was denying irrigation water to farmers to sustain what he described as a false campaign against the project.
KTR made the remarks after inspecting the Mid Manair Reservoir in Karimnagar district on Monday. He demanded that the government immediately resume lifting water through the Kaleshwaram project. According to him, the move was essential to protect farmers’ interests.
Kaleshwaram project can address irrigation needs, says KTR
The BRS leader alleged that standing crops were drying up because the government had failed to supply irrigation water. He said the Mid Manair Reservoir remained full during the previous BRS government. Now, he claimed, it was drying up because of official inaction.
According to KTR, lifting water from the Kannepalli Pump House could address irrigation and drinking water shortages. He said Telangana was facing the threat of drought. Meanwhile, he warned that the BRS would launch a statewide agitation under party president K. Chandrashekar Rao if the government failed to act.
Further, KTR accused the government of ignoring the advice of retired irrigation engineers, technical experts and the opposition. Instead, he alleged, it had resorted to personal attacks against them.
Refuting Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s claim that there was no flood flow in the Godavari, KTR said substantial quantities of water were flowing downstream every day. He alleged that Andhra Pradesh was lifting the same water for its needs. However, he claimed Telangana had stopped using it through the Kaleshwaram project.
KTR also criticised the report on the project, calling it “not an NDSA report but a Shikhandi Report”. He alleged that the BJP-led NDA government prepared it to malign Telangana. Finally, he claimed the Chief Minister had refused to resume water lifting because doing so would expose his allegations against the project as false.