Congress govt. fixed Krishna water injustice, fast-tracked irrigation projects: Uttam Kumar Reddy

HYDERABAD

Minister for Irrigation and Civil Supplies N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Sunday stated that the Congress government had taken several steps to correct the decades of injustice done to the State in the matter of Krishna water allocation.

In a review meeting held at Miryalguda, he said that due to persistent efforts, the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar had reopened the issue of sharing 811 tmcft water by the two Telugu States. He alleged that the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government had allowed Andhra Pradesh to take up Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme without even registering any protest.

The Congress government had convinced the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to install telemetry instruments across all water drawal points of the Krishna basin projects to ensure real-time monitoring and transparency in water usage. He accused the previous government of grossly ignoring the irrigation needs of South Telangana by focusing solely on the Kaleshwaram project, which, he said, had ultimately failed due to design flaws and corruption.

The amount of ₹94,000 crore spent on Kaleshwaram could well have helped complete major projects such as Devadula, SLBC, Dindi, Palamuru-Rangareddy, Sitarama, Uday Samudram and others, which remained pending for years. Despite spending ₹1.81 lakh crore on the irrigation sector during the BRS rule, no substantial ayacut was created.

Projects such as Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, Koilsagar and Bhima remained incomplete and Devadula and no irrigation potential was created under Sitarama despite huge spending. In contrast, the Congress government was focusing on delivering maximum irrigation benefits with minimum expenditure.

He stated that the Congress government had allocated ₹23,000 crore for irrigation in the 2024–25 budget and had taken steps to strengthen the department by recruiting 1,100 engineers and 1,800 Laskars on the outsourcing method. He stated that de-siltation of old reservoirs such as Nagarjunasagar and Sriramsagar was taken up after decades of neglect and the sedimentation had reduced their water holding capacity by 25% to 30%.