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BRS leader KT Rama Rao on Friday accused the Congress government in Telangana of neglecting the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, resulting in a decrease in water availability for farmers in the state.
"All we are saying is that this multipurpose project was conceived by KCR garu ( former chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao) as a project that will benefit farmers and industries. This is the world's largest lift irrigation project. Unfortunately, the Congress party wanted to derive political mileage out of it; nobody less than Rahul Gandhi came to this barrage and accused this project of having become the ATM of BRS and said that it was a failure. Today, you can see that 10 lakh cusecs of water are going to waste in the sea," KTR told ANI during his visit to the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project site here. "The Congress government here is acting in a willful and negligent manner. I would call it criminal negligence and it is now ensuring that the farmers of this state and reservoirs are starving for water. Reservoirs upstream on the Godavari River are awaiting water. If the government doesn't start pumping water upstream, then we will march with 50,000 farmers to the pump houses and start the pumps," he added. In June this year, Telangana's Civil Supplies and Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, along with other irrigation department officials, visited the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project to carry out an inspection. During his visit, the minister had said that the Telangana government had already spent 94,000 crores for the project and the revival of the project was the government's priority. The project aims to produce a total of 240 TMC (195 from Medigadda Barrage, 20 from the Sripada Yellampalli project and 25 from groundwater), of which 169 have been allocated for irrigation, 30 for Hyderabad municipal water, 16 for miscellaneous industrial uses, and 10 for drinking water in nearby villages, with the remainder being estimated evaporation loss, according to an official statement. When Congress was in Opposition in the state, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had alleged that Kaleshwaram project was KCR's ATM. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said the project is the victim of the KCR's corruption. (ANI)
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