BRS slams govt for operating Rampur pump house after calling Kaleshwaram project ‘useless’

The Telangana government, despite earlier criticism of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, has restarted operations at the Rampur pump house to supply irrigation water to Jagtial and Nizamabad districts. Former ministers Vemula Prashanth Reddy and T Jeevan Reddy welcomed the move but also criticised the government for inconsistencies and delays in irrigation projects.

Hyderabad: The State government had contradicted its own criticism of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project by operating the Rampur pump house, a component of the project’s reverse pumping system.

The government operated the Rampur pump house motors in Jagtial constituency to lift Godavari water into the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) flood flow canal through the reverse pumping system. The initiative is expected to provide irrigation water to nearly two lakh acres in Jagtial and Nizamabad districts.

---

Welcoming the move, former Minister and Balkonda MLA Vemula Prashanth Reddy said the Congress government, which had repeatedly claimed that the Kaleshwaram project had collapsed and was of no use, had now started the Rampur pump house motors.

He said the decision exposed what he described as the government’s earlier campaign against the project. Since Godavari water was being pumped into the SRSP flood canal through the Rampur pump house, Congress leaders should acknowledge that it was an integral part of the Kaleshwaram project, he added.

Prashanth Reddy also urged the government to immediately operationalise the Rajeshwar Rao Peta pump house on the SRSP flood canal, as water was already being pumped from Rampur to the Mid Manair reservoir.

Pointing to the increase in SRSP storage to 25 TMC following heavy rainfall over the past week, he demanded that the government also operationalise the Lakshmi, Vempalli, Bodepalli, Choutpalli Hanumanth Reddy, Gutpa and Alisagar lift irrigation schemes.

Meanwhile, former Minister and BRS general secretary T Jeevan Reddy also criticised the government during a visit to Rollavagu in Beerpur mandal. He said BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao had approved the expansion of the Rollavagu project from 0.25 TMC to 1 TMC soon after the formation of Telangana, as the original storage capacity was inadequate. Officials had assured that gates would be installed before the previous Rabi season, but the work remained incomplete even after the arrival of the Kharif season, he alleged.

According to Jeevan Reddy, the delay in installing the gates and shutters led to a breach in the inspection path, resulting in the loss of stored water.
He also alleged that lift irrigation schemes in Kolvai and Mangala villages of Beerpur mandal remained non-functional due to the absence of transformers.

He further claimed that the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) had not prohibited repairs to the Kaleshwaram project and accused the State government of failing to undertake the required works. Medigadda was only one component of the project, where two piers had subsided nearly 30 months ago, yet the government had not carried out repairs, he alleged.

Jeevan Reddy also criticised the government’s agricultural policies. He said the India Meteorological Department had been warning about the possible impact of El Nino for the past six months, but the government had encouraged farmers to cultivate fine-variety paddy. It was now asking them to switch to wet-and-dry crops after they had already invested in the crop, he said.

He also demanded that the government ensure an adequate supply of quality electricity and fertilisers to farmers. Questioning the introduction of the Urea App, he alleged that urea was being sold in the black market for Rs 600 a bag.