Telangana: Chorus grows for completion of Palamuru irrigation project

The Rs 50,000 crore project has seen no significant progress in the works ever since the inauguration of the first pumphouse by the then Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in September 2023

Hyderabad: Chorus is growing for prioritising the completion of works on the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project while adopting a focused approach to the irrigation and drinking water needs of the water-starved upland areas in the erstwhile Mahbubnagar district.

The Rs 50,000 crore project has seen no significant progress in the works ever since the inauguration of the first pumphouse by the then Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in September 2023.

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As the priority of the Congress government shifted to projects that hoped to give immediate results, the DPR of the PRLIP was also rejected by the Central Water Commission, and pending clearances also could make no headway. Under the new government, moves are afoot to take the water from Edula reservoir, which is part of the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project to the Dindi Lift irrigation scheme.

The government has proposed to name the PRLIP after the late S Jaipal Reddy, former Union Minister, and to take water from Edula reservoir to Dindi by constructing six kilometres of open canal and 16 km of tunnel. Half a TMC of water is sought to be drawn from Edula daily for sixty days a year to irrigate 3.61 lakh acres of the upland areas in Nalgonda. But the move has stirred the hornet’s nest once again.

The Palamuru Adhyayana Vedika has raised serious concerns over the Congress government’s moves to divert water from the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) to Nalgonda district, leaving erstwhile Mahbubnagar and Rangareddy districts in scarcity conditions.

In an open letter addressed to MLAs from all 14 Assembly constituencies of Mahabubnagar and MPs, the Vedika leaders urged them to stop such moves that would further marginalise the Palamuru region, which has experienced hardships for generations.

Vedika convenor M Raghavachary emphasised that the PRLIS took its present shape due to decades of people’s struggle, and any attempt to change it to the Palamuru-Dindi Lift Irrigation Scheme would face opposition. Raghava Chary warned that if the Palamuru region continued to suffer, even with the Chief Minister hailing from the region, the elected representatives would be reduced to laughing stock.

He highlighted that the Palamuru region faced displacement due to land acquisition for various projects. He also pointed out that Nalgonda, which was already served by multiple projects including the Nagarjuna Sagar Left Canal and Srisailam Left Bank Canal, should not take away water from Palamuru. A roundtable conference on this issue would be held in Hyderabad on January 12, he added.

In South Telangana, the Palamuru region, one of the most backward areas of the country, is at odds with Nalgonda, where the fluorosis problem is re-emerging with cases of skeletal and dental fluorosis detected in certain rural clusters.

Both pockets have faced generations of neglect and water scarcity. While Palamuru has endured severe calamities, leading to large-scale migration in search of employment, Nalgonda has suffered from crippling fluorosis for three generations. To a major extent, the concerns were addressed during the BRS rule.

However, with the main initiative that helped this, Mission Bhagiratha, losing priority under the new regime, water contamination has resurfaced as a major concern, and in turn, leading to the return of the fluorosis menace.

Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda are part of the Krishna basin catchments but deprived of water. Thanks to Supreme Court intervention, the drinking water component of the PRLIP project has no fresh clearances needed. The previous BRS government had undertaken the PRLIS to alleviate the misery of these drought-prone areas, benefiting 1,428 villages and providing drinking water to about 50 lakh people. The scheme aimed to irrigate some 12.3 lakh acres in the erstwhile Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy, and Nalgonda districts.

However, the Congress government’s decision to prioritise the Dindi project, benefiting only Nalgonda district, has sparked controversy. Ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy have been leading this new mission. The people of the Palamuru region have raised concerns, opposing the transformation of PRLIP into the Palamuru-Dindi Lift Irrigation Project.

Leaders of the Palamuru Adhyayana Vedika recalled that Palamuru people have been fighting for the last three decades for the construction of irrigation projects at an upstream point in Krishna preferably above the Jurala project to ensure justice to the region. But it was finally made dependent on the backwaters of Srisailam. If the concerns of Palamuru were left unaddressed, they said the region would continue to be at the receiving end for many more years to come.