Kaleshwaram project now useless: Uttam
Minister for Irrigation Uttam Kumar Reddy has informed that the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) has been damaged due to poor design, quality and corruption and the project is currently useless and cannot be filled with water.
Hyderabad: Minister for Irrigation Uttam Kumar Reddy has informed that the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) has been damaged due to poor design, quality and corruption and the project is currently useless and cannot be filled with water.
Uttam Kumar Reddy released a white paper on the Telangana Irrigation projects and later made a power point presentation on the subject in the Assembly on Saturday.
Addressing the House, the Minister said that the destructive irrigation policies adopted by the previous government put the State under a great risk and the wrong policies, huge debts and corruption incurred huge burden on the Telangana State.
He said former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had acted as the chief engineer and chief designer for the Kaleshwaram project and executed the project without taking the experts’ suggestions into consideration.
“It is very shameful that the BRS MLAs are making the counter allegations against the government, instead of tendering an unconditional apology to the people of Telangana for their failure,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.
“The entire Telangana irrigation sector crumbled due to the damage of the barrages; pump houses constructed on Godavari. The State economy was also in precarious conditions after the last government spent Rs 1.81 lakh crore in the name of irrigation projects. The State exchequer was completely desolated with debt burden, and it would have to pay an insurmountable debt burden of Rs 1.35 lakh crore in the next 10 years period, he disclosed,” the Minister said.
He alleged that there had never been such a corruption in the irrigation department under the BRS government and the Medigadda barrage, which was supposed to last for a hundred years, has reached on verge of collapsing.
He further stated that after the formation of Telangana (2014 – 2023), the BRS government had created only 15.81 lakh acres of ayacut at the cost of Rs 1,81,067 crore in 10 years. As per the estimations, a total irrigation facility of 127.58 lakh acres will be created once the ongoing projects are completed. It required Rs 97,774 crore to complete all the remaining projects and create 53.98 lakh acres of additional ayacut.
The total repayment of loan burden with interests in the next five years is Rs 77,369 crore and total requirement of funds to complete the remaining projects is Rs 1,75,1 43 crore. It required Rs 3.4 lakh to provide irrigation facility per acre, the Minister stated.
Uttam revealed that the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has stated that Annaram and Sundilla barrages are also in the danger zone and power consumption used by one Kaleswaram project is more than the electricity used in all sectors of the entire State of Telangana.
“At present, the works of irrigation projects are progressing in various stages, and these will be completed without any scope for corruption,” the Minister stated.
