It is an NDA report, not NDSA report, says KTR

Kaleshwaram was a scheme with multiple reservoirs, multiple pump houses and canal networks that stretched for kilometres, and not just one barrage, said KTR

Hyderabad: Reiterating that the expert team report on the Medigadda Barrage was more of a politically motivated NDA report than an NDSA report, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Sunday countered the Opposition’s charges that the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project was a failure.

Stating that Kaleshwaram was more than just one barrage and that it was Telangana’s ‘Kamadhenu’, he sought to know if the project was a failure, how could Telangana’s agri procurement increase from 68 lakh MT to 3.5 crore MT. How could cultivation expand in the Godavari basin, and how did the groundwater levels in Telangana record the one of the biggest rises in the country, in turn aiding a revival of the rural economy.

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Kaleshwaram was a scheme with multiple reservoirs, multiple pump houses and canal networks that stretched for kilometres, and not just one barrage. The State government had ensured there was about 147 tmc ft additional of water storage capacity in the reservoirs and this facilitated in irrigating lakhs of acres. If micro irrigation techniques were adopted, more acreage would get irrigated, he said.

Pointing out the shallowness of the allegations being leveled by the Congress, he pointed out that when the project cost was about Rs 80,000 crore, Congress leaders were crying hoarse over a scam of Rs 1 lakh crore. The Opposition was expecting the people to revolt against the BRS by raising the Kaleshwaram issue, but much to their chagrin, the public had remained nonchalant, because they knew what the Kaleshwaram was, and because they had seen the magic of water being reverse pumped from borewells, he said.

The Congress had tried to trigger a furore when the Annaram pump house was submerged due to heavy floods last year. But the agency had taken up repair works at its own cost without any burden on the State exchequer. Even for the Medigadda Barrage, the agency had already issued a statement that repairs would be done without any burden on government, he said, adding that if there was an engineering defect, it would be rectified.

It was over two years since the coffer dam was washed away at Polavaram, but there was no report submitted by the National Dam Safety Authority. On the other hand, soon after Rahul Gandhi visited Medigadda, followed by visits by BJP leaders, the NDSA had released its report. This exposed the collusion between the Congress and BJP, showing how they were bent upon tarnishing the reputation of the BRS government, he said.