Telangana irrigation projects have become the centre of a fresh political and administrative dispute after former minister T Harish Rao accused the Congress government of worsening the state’s water crisis and demanded a white paper on the operation of major lift irrigation schemes.
Addressing a press conference at Telangana Bhavan on Monday, Rao challenged Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy to explain claims that water could be brought by gravity from the proposed Thummidihatti barrage to Yellampalli. He also demanded that the detailed project report for the proposal be made public.
Rao said the previous BRS government had begun discussions with Maharashtra on the Thummidihatti barrage, part of the Pranahitha-Chevella irrigation project, within 42 days of taking office in 2014. According to him, the Congress government took 1,054 days to convene its first high-level meeting on the issue.
He recalled that former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, ministers and technical experts had held several rounds of discussions with Maharashtra on constructing the barrage at a height of 152 metres. Rao claimed that construction at that height would enable Telangana to receive 160 TMC of water. He also said the state had offered Maharashtra land and financial compensation, but the neighbouring state did not agree.
The former minister listed meetings held between Telangana and Maharashtra officials on August 16, 2014, December 23, 2014 and February 4, 2015. He also referred to a meeting held by K Chandrasekhar Rao in Maharashtra on February 17, 2015.
At the same time, Rao acknowledged that the Central Water Commission and the Centre had communicated in 2015 that adequate water was not available at Tummidihatti to meet Telangana’s projected requirements. He said those assessments led the previous BRS government to pursue the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, which he described as a lifeline for the state.
Rao also defended Kaleshwaram and alleged that repairs to the Medigadda barrage had been deliberately delayed for political reasons. The source report does not include a response from the Congress government or the irrigation minister to these allegations.
The dispute extends beyond the Thummidihatti proposal. Rao demanded that the state government publish operational details for the Devadula and Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Schemes, including the number of days they were run, operating hours, the number of motors used and the quantity of water lifted.
He alleged that only two of the five pumps at the Kalwakurthy scheme were operational and that the government was running them intermittently while warning residents about drought conditions. He linked the issue to concerns over crop holidays and questioned why Telangana farmers were facing such concerns when neighbouring states were not experiencing similar conditions.
Rao further alleged that the government had ignored expert advice on operating pumps at Kannepally and that retired engineers who advocated lifting water through the system had been threatened. These claims were also made at the press conference and were not independently established in the supplied report.
The immediate point of contention is whether the state government will release the requested white paper and the Thummidihatti DPR, along with operational data for the Devadula and Kalwakurthy schemes.
