Central nod delaying several TG projects: Uttam

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Telangana Ministers Uttam Kumar Reddy and Vakiti Srihari, in New Delhi on Sunday.

Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said that despite the Supreme Court clarifying that applications could be accepted and environmental assessments undertaken for irrigation projects, the processing of applications by the Union Environment Ministry was still taking several months.

The issue was brought to the notice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the Telangana delegation led by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy met him on Sunday, and they requested the Prime Minister to intervene and speed up the clearance process.

He said that Telangana had urged the Centre to expedite environmental clearances for the Palamuru-Rangareddy, Sitaramsagar and Dindi projects, on which successive governments had spent around ₹50,000 crore. However, their progress had been affected for years due to a Supreme Court stay and other procedural hurdles.

The Minister also said that the Sammakka-Saralamma barrage had been completed and hydrological clearance obtained, but the project required a no-objection certificate (NOC) from Chhattisgarh to utilise it to its full capacity. He said the Chief Minister and he would visit Chhattisgarh on November 17 to meet the Chief Minister of that State and discuss the pending NOC. Telangana had obtained a submergence report from IIT Kharagpur and the State was also willing to pay compensation for submergence.

Mr. Reddy said he would meet the Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC) on November 16 to request that the Sammakka-Saralamma DPR be examined under the guidelines prevailing when it was submitted as guidelines for approval were changed later.

Responding to questions on the possibility of lifting water from the damaged Medigadda barrage, Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy said that experts had ruled out such a possibility under the present circumstances.

He said the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages had similar secant pile foundations and that experts had documented deficiencies in their foundation design and construction. “Asking us to lift water from Medigadda under the present circumstances is meaningless,” he said.

The Minister alleged that the previous government had diverted the Pranahita-Chevella project from Tummidihatti to Medigadda after spending around ₹11,000 crore and completing nearly 30% of the works.

Mr. Reddy also said that Hyderabad is not facing any drinking water shortage and that adequate stocks have been maintained in reservoirs to meet the city’s requirements until the next monsoon. “We have stored sufficient water in reservoirs to meet drinking water requirements until the next monsoon.”