BRS avoided Tummidihatti as per CWC recommendations on water availability: Harish Rao

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) deputy floor leader T. Harish Rao said that then Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao had held several rounds of discussions with Maharashtra in 2014 and 2015 on the Tummidihatti barrage, but the Central Water Commission (CWC) had questioned the availability of the 160 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) required for the project and suggested exploring alternatives.

This had led the previous government to pursue the Kaleshwaram project, for which, he claimed, the necessary clearances were obtained to utilise 240 tmcft water. “If the government wants to build Tummidihatti, we have no objection. But it should repair Medigadda immediately and switch on the Kannepally pumps,” he said.

Addressing a press conference here, he demanded that the Congress government release a white paper detailing the number of days and hours for which the motors at the Devadula and Kalvakurthy lift irrigation schemes were operated, alleging that its failure to lift available water had aggravated the drought situation in Telangana. He claimed that only two of the five motors at Kalvakurthy were operating for 12 hours at a time, and questioned why the government had not lifted water from Devadula to meet the irrigation requirements of Warangal and parts of Karimnagar districts.

“Release a white paper stating when water was available, how many motors were operated, for how many hours and how much water was lifted,” he said. He claimed that the drought could have been avoided had the Devadula scheme been operated properly. He also claimed that retired engineers who had suggested switching on the Kannepally pumps to lift water through the Kaleshwaram project were threatened with disciplinary action and imprisonment. Operating the pumps, he argued, could have helped address the water shortage in north Telangana.