The Telangana drought dispute intensified after former irrigation minister and senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao accused the Congress government of worsening shortages of irrigation water and electricity, and demanded immediate action to protect standing crops across the state.
Speaking to mediapersons after a Legislative Assembly debate on El Nino conditions, Harish Rao said the government was wrongly attributing the crisis to nature instead of accepting responsibility for water and power shortages. He alleged that the drought was created by administrative failures and criticised the government’s handling of available water and pumping infrastructure.
Harish Rao demanded that the government begin operating the Kannepalli pumps and use available Godavari water. He also called for water to be lifted from Medigadda towards Yellampalli wherever technically and legally permissible. In addition, he asked the authorities to operate available pumps serving the Kalwakurthy, Palamuru, Nettampadu, Bhima and Koilsagar irrigation projects.
The demands relate to lift-irrigation systems that depend on pumping water across elevation differences to serve agricultural command areas. Their operation requires sufficient water availability, electricity and functioning equipment. Harish Rao said that delays or interruptions were putting standing crops at risk, particularly in areas dependent on the Nettampadu, Bhima, Koilsagar and Jurala projects.
He estimated that crops across nearly 3 lakh acres of ayacut under these projects were at risk. Ayacut refers to the agricultural area intended to receive irrigation from a particular project. The figure was presented by Harish Rao in his statement and was not independently assessed in the report.
The BRS leader also demanded uninterrupted power supply for farmers. He said farmers were being forced to run diesel generators to protect their crops, adding that the expense was about ₹1,500 a day. The claim links the irrigation crisis to the reliability and cost of electricity supply for agricultural pumping.
On generation capacity, Harish Rao said output at the Yadadri Thermal Power Station was around 1,500 MW against a stated capacity of 4,000 MW because of coal shortages. He further said generation at the Bhadradri thermal plant had fallen by 540 MW because of technical problems, while another 800 MW at Kothagudem was not being generated. These figures were cited by Harish Rao in his remarks.
Harish Rao also challenged Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy’s statement in the Assembly that Telangana had used 84 tmc ft of water from Srisailam during the year. According to Harish Rao, Telangana had drawn water from the Krishna river for the Kalwakurthy and Palamuru-Rangareddy lift-irrigation schemes, as well as for Hyderabad’s drinking-water needs, but had used around 43 tmc ft. He said Andhra Pradesh had used about 83 tmc ft.
The competing figures place water accounting and inter-state river use at the centre of the dispute. Harish Rao said the government could also have requested the Congress government in Karnataka to release water from Almatti for a month to help protect crops, but alleged that it had not done so.
His remarks came as the Assembly debated El Nino conditions and their relationship with the state’s water situation. The report did not include a response from the Telangana government to the allegations or confirm whether the pumping and power measures demanded by Harish Rao would be implemented. The immediate operational question is whether the state will activate the identified pumps, secure power for agricultural users and take further steps to protect the affected command areas.
