BRS leader and former minister T. Harish Rao speaking to newspersons in Hyderabad on Monday.
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has ridiculed the attempts of the Congress government in the State to take credit for executing the Sita Rama Lift Irrigation Project and giving water to 1.5 lakh acres with an expenditure of just ₹75 crore.
Party senior leader and former irrigation minister T. Harish Rao sought to know whether the Congress government was involved in any of the aspects of planning, preparing detailed project report, getting clearances and executing the works. Their role was only limited to filing cases in courts and in the green tribunal.
“One minister switched on one of the pumps in July while another from the same district (combined Khammam) went to the same spot and claimed that he switched on the pump,” he said, adding that current Minister for Irrigation N. Uttam Kumar Reddy switched on the same motors on Sunday in the name of trial run.
Addressing newspersons along with the party leaders from Khammam, Bhadradri-Kothagudem and Mahabubabad districts – Satyavathi Rathod, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, Peddi Sudershan Reddy, Gattu Ramachandra Rao, Mr. Harish Rao said it was the BRS regime that had constructed the project including pump houses after re-engineering the Indirasagar and Rajivsagar projects planned by the previous Congress government in 2005 as the location of head-works went to Andhra Pradesh following bifurcation. The then government had not secured any of the approvals — forest, wildlife, hydrology etc. — for the project conceived by it till 2014, but the ministers were now arguing that the cost had been escalated without reason.
Mr. Harish Rao explained that water drawal for the old project was 3,000 cusecs, while for Sita Rama project, it is 9,000 cusecs. The barrage capacity was 1.2 tmcft in the past but it is 36 tmcft for the redesigned Sita Rama project. Similarly, the ayacut increased from 3.24 lakh acres to 6.74 lakh acres with plans to utilise 67 tmcft against 27 tmcft in the past.
Further, the pump houses planned were 10 while there are only four now and there was no hydel generation in the initial project but it is 280 megawatts now. The length of pressure mains was also reduced to 8.5 km from 77 km planned by the previous Congress government. Of the eight packages in the main canal work, the BRS government had completed five in all respects and 80% work was done in the remaining three.
Mr. Harish Rao also played video footage of Tummala Nageswara Rao as the minister in the BRS government blaming the earlier Congress regime for making wasteful expenditure of ₹2,000 crore on the Indirasagar-Rajivsagar project.
