BRS working president K.T Rama Rao.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao saw a conspiracy in the Medigadda Barrage incident and fears another conspiracy soon just to defame BRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao and his 10-year rule.
“The incident happened just a month before the elections and going by the mood of this government to ensure to project Kaleshawaram project as a failure another sabotage cannot be ruled out,” he said in an informal chat with reporters in the Assembly on Saturday.
KTR said as of now Medigadda barrage is seeing 10 lakh cusecs of flood flow but no danger is noticed. Similarly, in the year 2020, the project could withstand 28 lakh cusecs of flood. “I suspect some foul play in the damage seen in Medigadda Barrage just before the elections,” he argued.
No other choice than lifting water
The former minister for IT said the ego of the leaders of the ruling party and their efforts to neutralise all the benefits of the Kaleshwaram project to defame KCR is stopping the government from lifting water from the Kannepally pump house. He urged the government not to punish the State and the farmers to satisfy the ego of a few persons.
He said there was no need to store water at Medigadda to lift water from the pump house, which can lift 40,000 cusecs of water daily. Instead of wasting the water, the government should shed its ego and lift water from the Kannepally pump house to fill Sripada Yellampalli, Mid Manair and from there all the other projects, including filling tanks in the villages enroute. “Can’t this government afford to pay the electricity bills to irrigate 35 lakh acres under the Kaleshwaram project to fill happiness in the faces of lakhs of farmers,” he asked.
Welcoming the government’s move to lift water from the Yellammpalli project, he said the government cannot lift more than 2 TMC ft out of the 16 TMC ft as 14 TMC ft water has to be stored there at any cost to provide drinking water to Hyderabad. Yellampalli is not getting any flows from Kadem project now and the only way it can be filled is by lifting water from Kannepally pump house.
