Hyderabad The Telangana government on Saturday asserted that it would complete all the pending irrigation projects on priority basis with focus on those projects which will create more command area at lower cost.
Presenting a white paper on the irrigation sector in the assembly, Telangana irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the state government would take steps to get the share of water legally from the Krishna river. “We will complete the neglected Krishna projects and provide irrigation water to the ayacut in southern Telangana region and stand by the farmers,” Reddy said.
He said at present, the works of irrigation projects were in various stages and they could be completed if adequate funds were made available to provide irrigation water to maximum ayacut (command area). “Keeping in view the availability of funds, we shall accord priority to the projects based on the status of work,” he said.
Reddy assured that pending irrigation projects, such as Kalwakurthy lift Scheme, Kodangal-Narayanapet, Chinna Kaleswaram, Alimineti Madhavareddy SLBC, Sripada Yellampalli Canal, Mid Manair, Komuram Bheem, and Devadula lift scheme, would be completed at the earliest.
“As more than 50 per cent progress has been made in the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift scheme (PRLIS), the government would get central funds under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) and PM Kisan Samruddhi Yojana (PMKSY) and complete the project expeditiously,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“As more than 50 per cent progress has been made in the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift scheme (PRLIS), the government would get central funds under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) and PM Kisan Samruddhi Yojana (PMKSY) and complete the project expeditiously,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Giving details of the money spent on irrigation sector in the last 10 years, the irrigation minister said the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi government had spent ₹1.81 lakh crore and created irrigation potential for only 1.581 million acres, which comes to about ₹11.44 lakh per acre, which was only 38% compared to the ayacut provided before the formation of the state.
“In 2023-24, it was proposed to provide irrigation to 17.21 lakh acres but only 500 acres of ayacut had been created,” he said.
Referring to the claims of the previous BRS government on the new ayacut created under Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme on Godavari river, Reddy said ₹93,872 crore was spent on the project but only 98,590 acres of ayacut was provided irrigation. “Except building barrages, pump houses and sub-stations, there was no intention to provide water to the farmers. The work was done without any plan of constructing the necessary distributaries and canals to irrigate new ayacut,” he said.
He further said the previous government had also spent ₹36,000 crore on irrigation projects,such as Palamuru-Rangareddy lift scheme, Sitarama lift scheme and Sitamma Sagar Project, with other capital expenditure and not even a single acre of irrigation facility had been provided so far.
Reddy also alleged that the previous government had neglected the management of old projects. As a result, the survival of irrigation projects has become questionable in the last 10 years. “As many as 15 gates of Kadem project were washed away due to lack of management, forcing the authorities to announce crop holiday for 65,000 acres under the project in the current Rabi season,” he said.
Similarly, in October 2019, the Musi project gates were washed away. On December 31 of the same year, Sarala Sagar Project in Wanaparthy district breached, he said.
The minister also pointed out that the previous government had not cleared payments for 28,412 bills for various irrigation works worth ₹10,455 crore. “Nearly 98% of them are below ₹1 crore, with a total value of ₹382.39 crore. Similarly, 304 bills ranging from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore are pending. The total value of these is up to ₹575.73 crore and there are 349 bills worth more than ₹5 crore and the outstanding amount is ₹12,682.50 crore. Even if these huge arrears are paid, new works cannot be taken up,” he said.
The white paper also accused the previous government of failing to protect the interests of the state in Krishna river water sharing and prevent the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh from constructing the lift schemes which were detrimental to Telangana.
BRS lawmaker and former irrigation minister T Harish Rao described the white paper tabled by the Congress government was a bundle of lies. He said the previous BRS government had taken up several irrigation projects and completed many of them.
“The white paper says the BRS government had not complained to the Centre on the Rayalaseema lift scheme being constructed by the Andhra government. It is a blatant lie. Even before the AP government issued an order on the project in May 2020, we lodged a complaint with the Centre in January itself,” he said.
Rao also refuted the allegation that the BRS government had agreed to hand over the Krishna basin irrigation projects to the Krishna River Management Board. “In fact, it was the Congress government which handed over the projects to the KRMB, as per the minutes of the meeting,” he alleged.