NGT petitioner on Rayalaseema LIS refutes Revanth Reddy’s claims

He asserted that he approached the NGT in an individual capacity as a farmer from the Palamuru region to safeguard the interests of farmers.

Hyderabad: Gavinolla Srinivas, a farmer from Narayanpet district and the petitioner against Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS), has refuted reports that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy made him file the petition in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that led to the halting of the RLIS in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. He asserted that he approached the NGT in an individual capacity as a farmer from the Palamuru region to safeguard the interests of farmers.

“The Rayalaseema LIS is detrimental to the interests of the Palamuru region. The Andhra Pradesh government issued GO 203 to increase the capacity of the Pothireddypadu project which poses a threat to several Telangana projects on Krishna river and consequently, took up work without mandatory approvals. Immediately, we approached the NGT through our advocate Sravan Kumar and filed a petition in 2020 and got it halted. Neither Chief Minister Revanth Reddy nor the Congress party have any role in it,” Srinivas told Telangana Today.

---

During a heated discussion between the treasury and the opposition benches in the Assembly on Monday on the resolution against handing over Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects to Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), Revanth Reddy had alleged that the previous BRS government failed to protect the interests of farmers of Telangana and ignored the illegal construction of the Rayalaseema LIS. He reportedly claimed that Srinivas filed the petition in the NGT with his support, leading to halting of the project.

Conceived by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government in August 2020, the RLIS is designed to provide assured water to approximately 19 lakh acres of land in four districts of Rayalaseema – Kadapa, Kurnool, Anantapur, and Chittoor. However, in December 2021, the NGT directed the Andhra Pradesh government to halt all work on the lift scheme in the absence of a mandatory environmental clearance.

In August last year, the Andhra Pradesh government started the process of obtaining environmental clearance for the Rs 3,829 crore RLIS, which will be constructed on the backwaters of the Krishna River. Though the AP government attempted to take up lining works of the Srisailam Right Main Canal (SRMC) which was part of the RLIS, the Telangana government complained to the KRMB, pointing out that the works were being taken up in violation of the NGT orders.