Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and former Telangana minister KT Rama Rao on Friday threatened that his party, along with 50,000 farmers would storm the Lakshmi pump house of Kaleshwaram project at Medigadda and forcibly start the pumps to release Godavari water to the command area, if the state government does not act on it by August 2.
KTR, as the son of former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is popularly known, visited the barrages and pump houses of Kaleshwaram project along with other BRS MLAs and leaders.
He sought to know why the Congress government was not operating the pumps at Lakshmi pump house and lift the water from Medigadda despite the availability of sufficient water in the barrage.
The BRS delegation inspected the pump house and spoke to officials, who told them that the pumps were in good condition and that there was sufficient flow of water to operate the pumps. “Yet, the government was not taking any decisions to pump water and provide water to farming community,” KTR said.
While the pumps can be operated at 30,000 cusecs water flow, the officials are not releasing water though the outflow was 9.60 lakh cusecs.
“This is a criminal negligence on part of the Congress government. The pumps are in perfect condition to release water to the command area, but the government is not acting, thereby compromising on the farmers’ interests,” he alleged.
He said the only reason behind the Congress government not operating the Lakshmi pump house is that once they do it, they have to admit that the Kaleshwaram project is the lifeline of Telangana.
“Before the elections, the Congress had defamed the BRS government over the sinking of two pillars at Medigadda. But the barrage is now standing strong despite 10 lakh cusecs of water flowing down into the sea,” he said.
On the state government citing National Dam Safety Authority orders for pumping water, the BRS working president called it a bogus exercise. Officials informed that grouting was taken up and it was a regular exercise as part of operation and maintenance.
State irrigation minister Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy, however, said the government would strictly follow the directions of NDSA in the release of water. He said the NDSA wanted all the three barrages to be drained for interim works and to keep them free from impounding and hence all the gates of the barrages were kept fully open.
He explained that in case of adding to the storage of the barrages at Medgadda, it would be resulting in huge submergence problem in the vicinity of the project.
He, however, said the project command area would be given water from the Sripada Yellampalli Project and that the pumping operations would commence in two or three days.
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2024-07-27T03:04:43Z dg43tfdfdgfd