Harish Rao urges Telangana government to lift Krishna, Godavari waters to save crops

BRSLP deputy leader T Harish Rao urged the Telangana government to lift available Krishna and Godavari waters at full capacity to protect standing crops. He accused the Congress government of underutilising irrigation projects, pumps and power-generation capacity.

Hyderabad: Hitting out the Congress government for its callousness in lifting Krishna and Godavari River water, BRSLP deputy leader T Harish Rao pressed for immediately lifting the available waters to save standing crops in Telangana. In view of the El Nino crisis, he wanted the government to operate all irrigation projects and lift schemes at full capacity.

He also demanded that the government take measures to stop diversion of Krishna River waters in Andhra Pradesh, seek an Apex Council meeting if necessary, release water into the Nagarjuna Sagar canal and divert it to the parched fields of erstwhile Nalgonda district. He emphasised the need to switch on all pumps of the Palamuru projects to safeguard irrigation and drinking water needs of erstwhile Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts.

---

Speaking to the media at Telangana Bhavan, Harish Rao said the Revanth Reddy government was allowing water to flow downstream but was failing to take it to farmers. He said only two of the five motors at the Ellur pump house of the Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme were being operated, that too intermittently for an average 11 hours a day. Against the required 1,600 cusecs, only 700 cusecs was being lifted despite a capacity of 4,000 cusecs. He demanded operation of all five motors round the clock.

At the Bhima project, only one of three motors was operating, while just one of four motors at Nettampadu project and one of three at Koilsagar project were being run. Harish Rao questioned why water was not being lifted at Bhima project and instead, allowed to water diversion through Veligonda and Pothireddypadu by the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

He said Palamuru Package-3 could be completed within a month if works were taken up seriously and the government would be able provide water to five to six lakh acres. He alleged that the project was kept pending for last three years to deny credit to the previous BRS regime.

The former Irrigation Minister slammed the Congress government, citing Telangana recording its lowest utilisation of Krishna River waters after Telangana State formation. While only 28.49 per cent utilised in 2024-25 and 25.77 per cent in 2025-26, there is no change for the current year as well. He said Andhra Pradesh had drawn 35 TMCft from Srisailam project against Telangana’s utilisation of only seven TMCft.

He pointed out that Kalwakurthy, Bhima, Nettampadu and Koilsagar projects were completed by the BRS government at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore and were providing irrigation to 6.5 lakh acres.

Kalwakurthy’s irrigation coverage, rose from 13,000 acres over three decades to 3.07 lakh acres under the BRS government. However, he said the Congress was underutilising all the pumps and putting farmers cultivating crops under these projects at risk.

Harish Rao pointed to farmers staging protests for irrigation and drinking water across the State, including in the Chief Minister’s Kodangal constituency and in Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy’s constituency. He also demanded that the government prevent crop losses and address the reported six-lakh-acre crop holiday.

He alleged that power-generation capacity was also being underutilised. He said the 800-MW KTPS plant and 540-MW BTPS Units 3 and 4 were shut, while Yadadri plant was generating only 2,000 MW against its 4,000-MW capacity. He demanded adequate power for irrigation, saying farmers needed electricity for pumps and water for fields rather than government presentations.