Jan 09, 2023 07:45 pm | Updated Jan 10, 2023 08:37 am IST – Hyderabad/Kurnool
Byreddy Rajaskara Reddy addressing the media in Hyderabad on Monday. Photo: Arrangement
Rayalaseema Development Committee Chairman Byreddy Rajasekhara Reddy on Monday led a team of Rayalaseema rights activists to submit a memorandum to KRMB Chairman Pratap Singh at the Krishna River Management Board office at Erram Manzil in Hyderabad on the proposed merger of Telangana and Telangana. Demanded to redesign the ‘iconic bridge’. Construction of a bridge-cum-barrage for subsidiary agriculture connecting Rayalaseema, and Somasila-Siddeshwaram.
The committee members from all Rayalaseema districts submitted a letter addressed to Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, saying that spending huge sums of money from the exchequer should bring emancipation and freedom from poverty to lakhs of farmers and poor. “In this case it is possible to achieve this by redesigning the proposed iconic bridge on NH 167. The committee members also requested the Speaker to set up its office in Kurnool instead of moving it to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
Apart from providing ease of movement to Tirumala, if it is rationally designed as a “bridge cum barrage”, it will stabilize the much needed Krishna River Ayacut and provide drinking water to lakhs of people. The letter alleged, “Severe drought and water scarcity as well as mismanagement of water due to the vested interest of the state government in power generation.”
The Krishna River Water Management Board will become a beacon for other such bodies, if it comes up with an execution plan for a much-needed water storage barrage instead of just a tourist attraction ‘iconic bridge’. Such a move would stabilize irrigation patterns and rhythms for Rayalaseema through Pothi Reddy Padu Head Regulator, KC Canal, Hundri Neeva Flood Water Utilization and many other similar infrastructure facilities for agriculture. It will also aid in a vibrant agricultural activity through the left canal to eliminate distress migration to South Telangana (i.e. Palamuru/Mahbub Nagar).