KCR vows to complete irrigation projects in 5 years

Hyderabad, March 31 (INN): Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao said that the Telangana Government would complete all irrigation projects in the State during the next five years to irrigate one crore acres of land by re-designing the projects.

Making a power-point presentation in the Assembly on Thursday, the Chief Minister said that the State Government has allocated Rs. 25,000 crore for irrigation sector during the financial year 2016-17. He said Rs. 5,000 crore would be provided additionally from next year to achieve the goal. He said besides completing the pending projects, the government would complete new projects.

The Chief Minister accused the Congress leaders of causing obstructions in the construction of irrigation projects by misleading the farmers and filing PILs in the High Courts. He said despite such objections, the TRS Government was firm on completing the project as per schedule. He alleged that the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh Government has deliberately created inter-State disputes on projects constructed in Telangana State. He said that the decision to re-design the projects was taken only after reviewing the wrong decisions taken by previous governments.

KCR said in untied AP, Telangana was entitled for 1330 TMC of Krishna River. However, no projects were constructed to utilise this water. Presently, only 20 lakh acres of land was getting irrigated while this could increase up to 1.70 crore acres. He said not a single major irrigation project was started in Telangana after the formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956.

The Chief Minister said that the Telangana was not getting its due share in Godavari and Krishna Rivers water due to the construction of 480 barrages in the upper riparian States of Karnataka and Maharashtra. For the same reason, Telangana was facing drought situation every year.

He said that the design of Pranahita Chevella project was faulty and therefore, it has been re-designed. He said now the barrage would be constructed at Kaleshwaram. Further, he confirmed that the height of Tummidi-Hatti has been reduced from 152 Metres to 148 Metres. He said reduction in height by four metres was in the interest of Telangana and it would be able to utilise more water from Godavari.

KCR informed that Himayat Sagar, Osman Sagar, Manjeera and Singur, which supplies drinking water to Hyderabad have dried. Therefore, arrangements were made to supply Godavari River water to city. He also informed that two new reservoirs, with each having a capacity of 20 TMC, would be constructed at Shamirpet and Rachakonda. He said these reservoirs would get supplies from Krishna and Godavari Rivers.

The Chief Minister alleged that the previous Congress Government has started several projects only to get commissions. He said pipes and motors worth about Rs. 750 crore were purchased from Indira Sagar and Rajiv Sagar of Khammam district by the Congress regime. However, he said those motors and pipes are still lying unutilised.