BRS faults Congress for misinformation campaign on Kaleshwaram project

BRS leader T. Harish Rao giving a presentation on Kaleshwaram project in Hyderabad on Saturday.

HYDERABAD

Congress party is running Goebbels campaign to mislead people on the Kaleshwaram project, senior leader of the BRS and former minister for irrigation T. Harish Rao said while defending the change of location, increase in costs and how it changed the agriculture landscape of Telangana within few years.

Making a PowerPoint presentation on the project in the party office here on Saturday in the presence of senior leaders, including working president K.T. Rama Rao, he alleged that the Congress government is making false claims on increased paddy and other foodgrain production this year without using Kaleshwaram water. However, the fact remains that water was drawn using Kaleshwaram network from Mid Manair reservoir, as also from Yellampally to some extent, he alleged.

At the same time, he said that he will place facts before the judicial panel along with documentary evidence.

He explained that Kaleshwaram is a unique project to draw water from three different points – the Link-I comprising three barrages and attached pump-houses and Yellampally and two other pump-houses (Nandi Medaram and Laxmipur), from Yellampally with the help of two pump-houses by availing flood water from Kaddam, and from Sriramsagar by drawing flood water with the help of flood flow canal and Kakatiya Canal.

On the Congress allegation that the BRS government had intentionally kept aside Tummidihatti barrage, the former irrigation minister reminded that the then Congress government had failed to secure any clearances and approvals for 7 years despite the party governments in combined Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and at the Centre.

He said the BRS government was forced to look for alternatives as Maharashtra was against the inter-State agreement at 152m FRL, bottlenecks of large-scale submergence in Maharashtra, and a wildlife sanctuary. Later, the Central Water Commission had also made it clear that even at 152m FRL, water availability would be 102 tmc ft after keeping aside 63 tmc ft for the upper riparian State. At 148m FRL, the water availability for Pranahita-Chevella project was just 44 tmc ft, Mr. Rao said.

On the increase in Kaleshwaram cost, he stated that it was due to increased water storage facility (reservoirs) from 16 tmc ft to 141 tmc ft., and a higher extent of land acquisition. The average land acquisition cost was ₹11 lakh per acre for Kaleshwaram project, while it was just ₹2 lakh for Pranahita-Chevella, he said.

msagar

t

Published - June 07, 2025 09:07 pm IST