Kaleshwaram petitioners to move Hyderabad High Court

Hyderabad: After the Supreme Court declined to entertain their petition against the redesign of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project, the petitioners have decided to approach the High Court. They said the redesign was causing 100 per cent cost escalation, and wanted the government to reduce the storage capacity of eight reservoirs. Mr Donthula Laxminarayana, one of the petitioners and convener of the Telangana Engineers’ Forum (TEF), along with Mr P.J. Suri, an activist from the 1969 statehood movement and others were speaking with the media here on Monday.

They said the Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta had said that it could not entertain the petition under Article 32 of the Constitution, and had left it to the petitioners to approach the High Court. “We will file our petition in the Hyderabad High Court within two weeks,” they said. Mr Laxminarayana said the Mallannasagar reservoir was an artificial project as it was not planned on any river. “The 50 tmc ft Mallannasagar is a 24-km circular reservoir with 61 metres height. Nowhere in the world does such an artificial reservoir exist. It’s dangerous,” he said.

“We suggest that the state government reduce the storage capacity of eight reservoirs from the proposed 99.25 tmc ft to 26.5 tmc ft so that we can save several villages from submergence. It will also save Rs 20,000 crore for the state,” Mr Laxminarayana said.

The petitioners said that as part of the redesign of the Kaleshwaram project, the water sourcing site had been shifted to Medigadda from Tummidihatti citing lack of sufficient water availability. Another reason was the denial of the Maharashtra government permission for submergence of 1,853 acres in that state. According to the Central Water Commission, the water availability at Medigadda (Kaleshwaram) was 284 tmc ft.