KTR claims Revanth avoiding Kanepally operations to deny credit to KCR

BRS working president KT Rama Rao urged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to operate the Kanepally pump house, saying it could supply irrigation and drinking water. He accused the Congress government of ignoring available Godavari water and claimed BRS would win 78 Assembly seats

Hyderabad: Citing the concerns of the farming community, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Saturday demanded that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy shed his inhibitions and operate the Kanepally pump house to provide irrigation and drinking water.

Rama Rao said the Telangana Retired Engineers Association had also urged the Congress government to operate the Kanepally pump house, maintaining that there was scope to lift two tmcft of water every day.

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Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he said nearly one lakh cusecs of water were flowing downstream from Medigadda, but the Chief Minister was unwilling to use the water to help farmers. If two tmcft of water were lifted daily, reservoirs such as SRSP, Lower Manair and Mid Manair in the Godavari basin could be filled, he said.

Rama Rao said the engineering design of the Kaleshwaram project allowed water to be pumped from Kanepally without closing the gates at Medigadda. He also claimed that any threat to Bhadrachalam was primarily due to the height of the Polavaram project and that accordingly seven mandals from Khammam were merged with Andhra Pradesh.

“The Chief Minister is worried that if he speaks about the Polavaram backwater threat, his guru might get angry,” Rama Rao alleged.

He said the Medigadda barrage had withstood a record flood of 28.5 lakh cusecs in 2022, the highest in the history of the Godavari basin. At present, only about one lakh cusecs were flowing through the barrage, which he claimed it could easily withstand. Amid the El Nino impact, the significance of the Kaleshwaram project was being realised as it was facilitating the tapping of water at Medigadda, he maintained.

The BRS leader said the State government had already completed grouting works at the Annaram and Sundilla barrages. But the Chief Minister was reluctant to operate the Kanepally pump house because it would disprove his claims that the Kaleshwaram project had collapsed, he charged.

“Revanth Reddy fears that if Kanepally is operated, BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao will get the credit. This drought is the result of the Congress government’s inefficiency,” Rama Rao said. Recalling the Chief Minister’s past vows at temples on implementing the crop loan waiver, Rama Rao urged him not to drag religious sentiments into politics, referring to Revanth Reddy’s claims that Bhadrachalam would get washed away if water was stored at Medigadda and that the barrage might collapse.

BRS will win 78 seats

Rejecting Revanth Reddy’s claim that the Congress would win 117 Assembly seats in the next elections, Rama Rao said the party would struggle to win even seven seats. “Thirty months have already passed. The Chief Minister conducted four surveys, and all of them showed the BRS winning 78 seats. Even his personal survey indicated the same,” Rama Rao claimed.