BRS spreading lies on govt. efforts to protect State’s rightful share in river water: Uttam

Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has criticised the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and former minister for irrigation T. Harish Rao for spreading lies repeatedly on the State Government’s fight to protect the rightful share of Telangana in river waters.

They were doing so with misgiving that if a false spoken repeatedly would be believed as truth, the minister said addressing a press conference virtually on Friday to counter the allegations of Mr. Harish Rao stating that the Congress Government was keeping quiet on the Andhra Pradesh’s plans to utilise even Telangana’s share of waters in the Krishna and Godavari Basins.

“We won’t forego even one drop of Telangana’s rightful share in Krishna and Godavari Basins and we are fighting with all our might to protests the State’s interests and stop AP’s plans to take away water by raising the issue at different fora such as tribunals, courts and the Central Government,” he asserted.

On the Polavaram-Nallamalasagar Link Project (PNLP), he stated that Union Minister of Jal Shakti had written to him (Mr. Reddy) on January 29 stating that the Centre and any of its agencies did not give any clearance including for pre-feasibility report of the project and the PFR submitted by AP to the Central Water Commission (CWC) was sent to other riparian States for their comments and views. Even the CWC Chairman had written the same to the State Government in December.

On Friday’s meeting in Delhi attended by authorities of the irrigation/water resources departments of AP and Telangana and chaired by CWC Chairman, the Minister for Irrigation said the State Government would hold discussions with anybody to protect the rights of Telangana. The Telangana officials opposed inclusion of PNLP in the agenda of Friday’s meeting and discussed only other projects of Telangana halted due to inter-state issues.

When asked about the Economic Survey report complimenting Kaleshwaram and Mission Kakatiya projects for increasing the area under irrigation, Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy feigned ignorance and said he did not know why the Centre highlighted it. Of the ₹17 lakh crore budget in 10 years of BRS rule, they had spent ₹1.8 lakh crore on the irrigation sector but had failed to complete even one project.

The Kaleshwaram project designed and constructed by BRS had collapsed and only 160 tmc ft water was lifted between 2019 and 2023. Of it, about 90 tmc ft was let into sea again due to flood. They did not complete Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme after spending ₹27,500 crore and Sita Rama Lift Irrigation Project by sparing ₹8,500 crore or ongoing projects like Koilsagar, Bhima, Dindi, Srisailam Left Bank Canal and others.

The Minister also justified having retired bureaucrat Adityanath Das as Advisor (Irrigation) stating that he was a competent officer to represent Telangana’s interests and it was the government’s right to appoint any competent person for the post.