Congressional government. Fixed injustice in Krishna water, fast tracking irrigation project: Uttam Kumar Reddy

Hyderabad

Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said on Sunday that the Congressional government has taken several steps to correct the injustice caused to the country by decades of Krishna water allocation.

At a review meeting held in Miryalguda, he said that the Krishna Water Dispute Trial Trial, led by Justice Brijesh Kumar, has reopened the issue of sharing 811 TMCFT water due to ongoing efforts. He claimed that the former Bharat Rashtra Samisi (BRS) government allowed Andhra Pradesh to accept the Rayalaseema weightlifting irrigation scheme without even any protests.

The Congressional government convinced the Krishna River Management Committee (KRMB) to install telemetry tools on all pumping points of the Krishna Basin project to ensure real-time monitoring and transparency of water use. He said the former government focused only on the Kaleshwaram project, ignoring the irrigation needs in South Telangana, saying the project ultimately failed due to design flaws and corruption.

The 9.4 crore spent on Kaleshwaram will likely help complete major projects such as Devadula, SLBC, Dindi, Palamuru-Rangareddy, Sitarama, sitarama, Uday Samudram, etc., which have been pending for years. Although Rs 1.81 crore was spent on the irrigation sector during the BRS rules, no large amount of Ayacut was created.

Projects such as Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, Koilsagar and Bhima are still incomplete, but irrigation potential is still not generated under the huge expenditures of Sitarama. By contrast, the Congressional administration focuses on providing the greatest irrigation benefits with minimum spending.

He said the Congressional government allocated Rs 2.3 crore in irrigation in the 2024-25 budget and took steps to strengthen the sector through outsourcing methods of recruiting 1,100 engineers and 1,800 Laskars. He said that after decades of negligence, old reservoirs such as Nagarjunasagar and Sriramsagar were removed, and settlement reduced their water holding capacity by 25% to 30%.