BRS accuses govt. of stopping Devadula water lifting

Deputy Floor Leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the Assembly and former minister T. Harish Rao on Friday accused the Congress government of deliberately stopping water lifting from the Devadula project and causing severe hardship to farmers in Warangal district, despite ample water flow in Godavari river.

He along with several other leaders of the party visited the third pump house of the Devadula Lift Irrigation Scheme at Devannapet in Warangal district, which was not in operation as the motors were switched-off.

Speaking on the occasion, he said the government was not switching on the motors, though there was sufficient flow in the river and the ayacut was in need of water. He stated that about 16,000 cusecs of water was flowing in Godavari near Sammakka Sagar as on Friday.

Recalling that Minister for Irrigation N. Uttam Kumar Reddy had announced on March 18 last year that the motors would be switched on, but left the site without ensuring that the pumps actually started functioning. Due to the non-operation of the pumps last year, crops on nearly 60,000 acres dried up, causing huge losses to farmers, he alleged.

This season, water lifting was not being done for the last 10 days, affecting the ayacut in Jangaon, Palakurthi and Station Ghanpur constituencies, while the Gandiramaram lift was not being operated due to lack of water. Demanding immediate operation of all Devadula motors at full capacity and urgent steps to supply water to at least 3.5 lakh acres to protect farmers this season, Mr. Harish Rao said officials were citing “repairs” and “software issues” as excuses.

He pointed out that the third phase of the Devadula project, including the 49.5 km tunnel from Ramappa to Unikicherla, described as one of the longest tunnels in the world, was completed under the BRS Government. The Devannapeta pump house, built at a depth of 155 metres, is among the deepest in the world, he noted.

The BRS leader stated that their government had expanded the ayacut from about 47,000 acres to over 3.17 lakh acres. Maintenance funds of about ₹8 crore were not released to contractors last year, he pointed out and said that it had resulted in pumps remaining idle and leading to crop loss estimated at ₹700–800 crore.

Though the Bhimganpur pump house has the capacity to lift 2,160 cusecs, only about 1,700 cusecs was being lifted and only five or six motors were being operated instead of all 10. He also sought to know why lift irrigation points such as Gandiramaram were shut down when farmers urgently needed water.