Hyderabad: Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday accused former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao of committing two “historic blunders” that, he said, severely damaged Telangana’s river water rights.
During a PowerPoint presentation in the Legislative Assembly, Uttam Kumar Reddy said decisions taken during the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) regime weakened Telangana’s ability to use its rightful share of Krishna and Godavari waters.
He alleged that the previous government deliberately changed the intake points of key irrigation projects to erase the imprint of the earlier Congress administration. According to him, the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme intake shifted from Jurala to Srisailam. In a similar move, the Pranahita–Chevella project intake moved from Thummidihatti to Medigadda.
Projects altered, costs escalated
Uttam Kumar Reddy said both changes proved counterproductive. As a result, Telangana remained water-starved despite massive spending. He said the BRS government spent over ₹1.83 lakh crore on irrigation without delivering tangible benefits.
Referring to borrowings, the minister said the State raised loans at interest rates of 11 to 11.5 per cent. This approach pushed Telangana close to a financial crisis, he said. However, the present Congress government later converted these loans into low-interest borrowings.
Calling the Palamuru Rangareddy project a symbol of the “betrayal of Palamuru,” he said the project would have delivered more benefits at a lower cost if the intake had remained at Jurala. Instead, project costs rose sharply over time.
Project estimates increased from ₹32,000 crore to ₹55,000 crore by 2022. On completion, he said, costs could touch ₹80,000–84,000 crore.
Krishna dispute, Kaleshwaram failures highlighted
Rejecting BRS claims of 90 per cent completion, Uttam Kumar Reddy said not a single acre received irrigation water. He added that land acquisition for over 39,000 acres remains pending.
On the Pranahita–Chevella project, later merged into the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, he said shifting the intake to Medigadda caused structural failures. He said three barrages remain under repair, and irrigation benefits have yet to reach farmers.
Turning to the Krishna river disputes, the minister accused the BRS government of surrendering Telangana’s interests. The minister said Telangana accepted 299 TMC, while Andhra Pradesh received 512 TMC in the 2016 Apex Council decision. He added that authorities endorsed the allocation again in 2020.
He also criticised the previous government for failing to install telemetry systems at key locations. This lapse weakened monitoring and enforcement, he said. Uttam Kumar Reddy added that Telangana now seeks 756 TMC, nearly 70 per cent of the dependable Krishna yield.
Despite these challenges, he said Telangana achieved record crop yields and procurement during the past two years.
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