HYDERABAD
Minister for Irrigation N. Uttam Kumar Reddy hit back at Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader T. Harish Rao alleging that the latter and his party were trying to deceive the farmers of combined Mahabubnagar by speaking lies on lifting of water and giving water to the Kharif crop.
Stating that BRS was unable to digest the fact that the farming community was prospering better during the Congress regime compared to it (BRS), the Minister said the government was well aware of when to switch on the motors of Kalwakurthy lift irrigation scheme and it was the responsibility of the government to provide all inputs to farmers at the time of cultivation of crops.
He mentioned that the farming community of Telangana has raised paddy in record extents in the two crop seasons last year and produced 153.5 lakh tonnes and 1.3 lakh tonnes, respectively, achieving a record production of 283 lakh tonnes in one year.
Instead of seeking apologies from people for the mistakes committed by them during their 10-year rule, the BRS leaders were trying to mislead and deceive farmers in the name of Kalwakurthy and Kannepally (Medigadda). He sought to know how the water could be lifted from the damaged barrage, which was a result of the BRS misrule.
Even the Annaram and Sundilla Barrages were not safe due to construction of foundations with secant piles instead of sheet piles. Even if water is lifted from Kannepally pump house at Medigadda, the two upstream barrages were not in a position to hold water to run their pump houses to lift back water to Yellampally.
Coming to Kalwakurthy LIS, the minister said the pumps of the LIS would generally be switched on either in July last week or August first week every year to give water to the Kharif crop. He asked the farmers not to worry about it and mentioned that pumps of Kalwakurthy were switched on August 11 in 2019, August 31 in 2020, August 15 in 2021, July 13 in 2022 and on August 6 in 2023. Last year, they were switched on on July 27.
The government would take a decision at an appropriate time on when to switch on the pumps of different LISs and when to release water to canals and how much water would be given, based on the availability of water. This year it would be decided at the meeting of the State Level Committee for Integrated Water Planning and Management (SCIWAM) on July 11, Mr. Uttam Reddy explained.
Similarly, against Andhra Pradesh’s illegal diversion of 770 tmc ft of Krishna water during 2004-14, the State was allowed diversion of 1,225 tmc ft water during 2014-23, the Minister stated.
