Hyderabad, 29 December (H.S.): Telangana Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday said the Congress government is committed to completing the Palamuru–Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme with its original allocation of 90 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water.

His remarks came a day after Bharat Rashtriya Samithi working president K.T. Rama Rao accused the ruling party of pushing the project “into distress.”

Speaking to reporters, Uttam Reddy said the Congress government is strictly adhering to the government order issued on August 18, 2022, during the previous BRS regime, which proposed a total allocation of 90 TMC for the project. Of this, 45 TMC was to come from savings in minor irrigation schemes and the remaining 45 TMC from Telangana’s share of Andhra Pradesh’s diversion of Godavari water.

The minister said the BRS itself had sought 90 TMC in its submissions to the Centre and accused the opposition party of spreading misinformation. He added that work on critical components such as the Narlapur–Edula link and distributary canals was stalled during the previous government, despite the project’s potential to irrigate over 12.3 lakh acres in drought-prone districts including Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy and Vikarabad.

On Sunday, Rama Rao alleged that the Congress government had reversed development in Palamuru district and pushed it back into distress and large-scale migration. He claimed that nearly 90 per cent of the project works were completed during the previous government when K. Chandrasekhar Rao was chief minister.

Responding to the charge, Uttam Reddy criticised the BRS for prioritising the Kaleshwaram project while allocating only Rs 27,000 crore to the Palamuru scheme over a decade. He said the cost later escalated to Rs 55,000 crore by the time the detailed project report was submitted to the Central Water Commission after a delay of seven years.

“Despite spending Rs 27,000 crore, not a single acre received water,” the minister alleged.

He asserted that while the BRS had ten years to complete the project and failed, the Congress government would finish it and ensure water reaches Palamuru.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar