Govt eyes 100 tmcft water from Maha to irrigate fields in TS

Hyderabad: The State Government has come up with a proposal to lift 100 tmcft of water from the Koyna project in Maharastra to meet the growing irrigation needs in Telangana.

The Government is ready to pay the cost incurred on power generation from the hydro electric project at Koyna project in lieu of the supply of water to Telangana by Maharastra. Minister for Irrigation and Civil Supplies N Uttam Kumar Reddy held a review on irrigation projects and discussed the challenges being faced by Telangana to address the demand for water. Informing that a delegation led by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy will visit Karnataka to seek 10 TMC of Krishna water to meet the upcoming drinking water needs, the Minister said that the government is also ready to pursue the issue of the supply of water from Koyna project by Mahrastra to Telangana soon.

The government targeted to create a new ayacut of approximately 5 lakh acres by the end of this year. “Recently, the Chief Minister and I met with union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and requested national project status for the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme.

Though the Union Minister clarified the absence of a specific scheme for national project status, he assured funding for the Palamuru Rangareddy under different Central Government schemes,” he said, adding that a proposal would be sent this week to the Centre for funding of the project.

The minister highlighted that the review meeting exposed significant wasteful and unproductive expenditure during the previous BRS government. Consequently, Uttam emphasised the need for the present government to prioritize optimal expenditure, focusing on maximizing new ayacut under irrigation. He further stressed that preference would be given to projects capable of generating new ayacut swiftly.

“We discussed projects and expenditure during the meeting, identifying those where new ayacuts can be generated within 6 months and within one year. We categorized the time frames for new ayacut creation, with a decision to maximize expenditure on projects achieving this goal within six months to one year. Our target for this calendar year, by December 2024,

is to create new ayacuts

spanning 4.5 to 5 lakh acres,” he asserted.

The Minister mentioned the initiation of a vigilance enquiry into the Medigadda barrage collapse and assured that those responsible would be held accountable.

He also disclosed Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s letter to the Chief Justice of the Telangana High

Court, urging the appointment of a sitting judge for a judicial inquiry into the Kaleshwaram project.