Byreddy against construction of Upper Bhadra Project

Kurnool: Rayalaseema Steering Committee (RSS) convener Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy strongly opposed the illegal construction of Upper Bhadra Project on river Tungabhadra by the Karnataka government. Addressing media conference here on Thursday, Byreddy said if the Karnataka government constructs the project, then the people and farmers of Rayalaseema region would face great severe water problem.

He recalled the British government to mitigate the drought situation in the region, made an agreement with the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to allocate water to the Rayalaseema districts. He reeled out the statistics of water allocation from Hospet Dam, High Level Canal (HLC) 32.5 tmc, Low Level Canal (LLC) 29 tmc, KC canal 39.9 tmc and Bairavani Teppa 4.9 tmc. If the government do not oppose the illegal construction of Upper Bhadra project, then the people of this region would face severe drought conditions.

Stating that he was not interested in doing politics, Byreddy said he would fight for protecting the interests of Rayalaseema region.

He wondered why the political leaders were silent on this issue. He further said that the rope bridge proposed to be constructed on river Krishna near Siddeswaram by Telangana government was of no use to the people of Rayalaseema. Instead of rope bridge, he demanded construction of bridge-cum barrage, like Krishna barrage in Vijayawada, so that the water could be stored and used for drinking and irrigation needs.

The steering committee convener said that he will not keep mum and will fight till justice was rendered to Rayalaseema region. Byreddy said that he is going to start padayatra from Rajoli Banda Diversion Scheme (RDS) to Adoni on February 25 and appealed to all political leaders and people's organisations to come forward and join in the fight and make it a grand success.