Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme DPR triggers fresh row

Centre's outright refusal to even examine DPR by State points at its discriminatory approach

Hyderabad: The Centre’s outright refusal to even examine the Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted by Telangana on the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) has once again brought to the fore the discriminatory approach of the BJP-led government, and at the same time, is likely to hit the State’s mega plans to supply drinking water to over 1,000 villages and to irrigate several lakhs of acres.

The Palamuru-Rangareddy project, considered the lifeline of South Telangana, was proposed to provide drinking water to 1,200 drought-prone and fluoride-affected villages in six districts and to irrigate 12.30 lakh acres. However, with the Central Water Commission (CWC), recently returning the project’s DPR stating that it could not be taken up for examination until the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT-II) gives its verdict on the issue, has thrown new hurdles before the State’s plans.

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However, Telangana is not taking it lying down with Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar, who dashed off a letter on Tuesday to the Jal Shakti Ministry questioning the basis on which the DPR was returned, now planning to send a team of senior officials to New Delhi.

According to officials, Rajat Kumar, who urged the Ministry in his letter to direct the CWC to appraise the DPR without any further delay and pointed out that the matter was not sub-judice as perceived by the CWC, had also pointed out that unnecessary problems were being created for the implementation of the project.

The team of senior officials, it is learned, will be meeting the Jal Shakti Ministry Secretary and appraise higher officials about the ground reality apart from highlighting the discrimination in project appraisal to the secretary so that the double standards being adopted by the CWC could be exposed.

As per the terms of reference, the Tribunal could not allocate water afresh between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Moreover, reallocation of 45 TMC water to Palamuru-Rangareddy by the State government was acceptable and it was in practice in AP and Karnataka. In fact, Karnataka too reallocated water from other projects to the Upper Bhadra project and the Centre had given approvals for Upper Bhadra and even conferred national project status on it, officials pointed out.

This is not the first time that the Centre was creating hurdles in the construction of irrigation projects in Telangana. In the recent past too, Rajat Kumar had pointed out inordinate delays by the Centre in granting clearance to various proposed and ongoing projects citing court cases and other excuses, was resulting in massive cost escalation for the State.

Even Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had expressed his anguish over the CWC delaying clearances for half-a-dozen irrigation projects in the State though the DPRs were submitted long back. It was only after months of follow-up and communication with various departments that the Centre reluctantly granted permissions for some of the projects announced by the State government.

Surprisingly, a few members of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) too were found to be working against the interests of Telangana. A member of the board during a meeting last year had tried to plant false information in the media on the power and water sharing issues between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The member was removed from the board after Telangana registered a strong protest.