PRLIS will be Waterloo for Opposition, says Niranjan Reddy

The impact on the environment was minimized by reducing the submergence to only three village and eight tandas. Land acquisition need was brought down from 85000 acres to 27,000 acres by redesigning the projects.

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy said on Saturday that the opposition parties were out to scuttle the progress of works on the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation scheme being fully aware of the fact that the completion of the project giving water to the 13 lakh acres in southern districts of the State would spell doom for them.

Pointing out that some of the opposition leaders were spewing venom against agencies and the officials involved in the implementation of the project as the project would be their Waterloo, he said Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had decided to go for the lift scheme to draw 90 tmc of water from the backwaters of the Srisailam Project to quench the thirst of the people in the region as the water availability in the projects such as Bhima, Nettempadu and Koilsagar was limited and would not support the needs the people in the district. Even the availability of water in the Jurala project was also limited to meet the growing needs of irrigation sector.

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The opposition parties had tried to stall implementation of the project moving the courts and the Green Tribunal citing environmental issues. Cases were filed in the name of the farmers also. The impact on the environment was minimized by reducing the submergence to only three village and eight tandas. Land acquisition need was brought down from 85000 acres to 27,000 acres by redesigning the projects.

Taking strong exception to the attempts being made by the opposition leaders to malign even officials involved in implementation of the project. They should have faith in officials such as Penta Reddy, the key official behind the installation of the high power pumping units as part of the project, he said. Penta Reddy was behind the installation of over 250 such pumping motors so far and his technical knowledge was most sought after by many foreign countries.