BRS leaders demand speedy completion of PLRI scheme

Former Ministers and BRS leaders in Mahabubnagar have accused the Congress government of deliberately neglecting the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation (PLRI) project.

Mahabubnagar: Condemning what they described as the Congress government’s negligence towards the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation (PLRI) project, former Ministers from the district demanded that the State government complete the remaining 10 percent of work at the earliest.

A delegation of former Ministers and BRS leaders visited the Narlapur pump house and the Jurala project in the district on Tuesday.

---

Speaking on the occasion, former Minister V Srinivas Goud demanded that the Congress government complete the PLRI scheme without succumbing to Andhra leadership. Bearing a political grudge, the Congress government was deliberately neglecting the PLRI project, which was launched by the BRS government, he alleged.

Already, 90 percent of the project works had been completed and only the remaining 10 percent needed to be taken up, he stressed.

“During the last 70 years, the Congress party has done injustice to the Palamuru region and is continuing to do so by neglecting the PLRI project,” Srinivas Goud said.

Referring to the accumulation of sludge and mud in the Jurala project, the former Minister said the project had gone dry, forcing the declaration of a crop holiday in the region.

Former Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy said that, based on experts’ recommendations, the PLRI intake source was relocated from Jurala to Srisailam as there was greater availability of water. He said five reservoirs had already been completed under the PLRI scheme. If all the reservoirs were filled in a single season, nearly 68 tmcft of water would be available. There was a provision to fill the 68 tmcft thrice in a year as sufficient water was available in Srisailam, he explained.

Due to the vision of BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, Palamuru lands had become fertile over the last 10 years, Niranjan Reddy said, adding that nearly 10 lakh acres in the region had been brought under irrigation. If the PLRI scheme was completed, the topography of the entire district would be further transformed, he pointed out.

“But the Andhra leadership and the Congress leaders, who are working as their slaves, are carrying out a false campaign over the relocation of the intake source and misleading the people,” Niranjan Reddy alleged.