Niranjan Reddy says project benefits have made Congress, BJP more jealous
Niranjan Reddy says project benefits have made Congress, BJP more jealous
Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy criticized the opposition parties for politicizing the submergence of two pump houses of the Kaleshwaram project amid unprecedented floods and forgot that similar incidents had happened in other states in the past.
Alleging that Congress and BJP leaders are unable to digest the fact that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had made the Kaleshwaram project possible by making the most of the availability of water in the Godavari river, the minister said the project had benefits. made them more jealous.
He said the senior most engineers of the Central Water Commission (CWC) had termed the project an engineering marvel, but Congress and BJP leaders were unable to tolerate it, even though the farming community was benefiting. Talking to reporters here on Sunday, he said BJP and Congress leaders are alleging corruption worth Rs 2 lakh crore in this project, while Rs 95,000 crore has been spent on it so far.
The minister said that the CWC had also accepted that the flood this time up to Medigadda barrage in Godavari was the highest in the last 500 years. As per CWC norms, 103.5 meters of flood at Kaleshwaram upstream of the barrage will be treated as warning level and 104.75 meters as danger level. The highest flood level (HFL) recorded was 107.5 m in 1986.
Based on HFL, barrages at Medigadda, Annaram and Sundila and their associated pump houses were designed. However, the HFL was recorded at 108.19 m in the river at Kaleshwaram on 14 July. He reminded Congress and BJP leaders that Kurnool city was badly flooded when the Srisailam project was flooded by 2.5 million cusecs.
He accused the Congress of proposing projects to Telangana in terms of irrigation where the required water was not available, and supporting diversion of large amounts of water outside the basin areas by staying silent on the four-fold expansion of the Pothireddypadu head regulator. During YS Rajasekhara Reddy rule in united Andhra Pradesh.
The TRS government shifted the take-off point of the lift irrigation scheme proposed by the then Congress government to Medigadda on the basis of availability of water. He reminded Congress leaders that the Srisailam right power house was submerged in 1998 and 2009, and the Kalvakurthy lift pump house was also submerged twice.
Instead of throwing mud at the TRS government, Mr Reddy suggested the BJP to fight for national status for the Telangana project. He met Lift Irrigation Consultant K. He also blamed two opposition parties for criticizing Penta Reddy.