Hyderabad: Accusing the Congress govt of failing to protect the state’s water interests, former minister T Harish Rao said that proposed changes to the Godavari-Cauvery river link project could severely affect Telangana ’s share of Godavari waters. Calling the AP’s proposal as a detrimental to the Telangana state interests, the BRS senior leader demanded that the Centre withdraw the proposed changes, protect Telangana’s water rights and ensure that any river-linking project does not compromise the state’s interests. Harish Rao also called for an all-party delegation to inspect major pump houses and review the functioning of lift irrigation projects across Telangana.
Harish Rao said the AP CM wrote to the Centre on October 7 seeking to route the project from Polavaram instead of the earlier Ichampally-Sammakka Sagar alignment. The BRS leader said the earlier route through Ichampally and Nagarjuna Sagar would have helped irrigate over 2.38 lakh acres in the erstwhile Warangal, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy districts. The former minister further claimed that of the 148 TMC of water proposed to be diverted under the Godavari-Cauvery link project, Telangana’s allocated share is 43 TMC.
He said that shifting the project to Polavaram would jeopardise Telangana’s interests in irrigation, drinking water and industrial water supply. “CM Revanth Reddy surrendered to AP CM Chandrababu Naidu,” he said. He alleged that the proposed Polavaram-Bollapalli route would bypass Telangana and deprive the state of benefits that were envisaged under the original proposal. He expressed concern that the state’s entitlement could be compromised if the revised alignment is cleared. Launching a sharp attack on CM A. Revanth Reddy, Rao accused the Congress govt of remaining silent on AP’s demands. He alleged that the state administration had also failed to utilise available water resources by not operating lift irrigation schemes such as Devadula, Kalwakurthy and Kannepally to their full capacity.