Telangana Govt Debunks BRS Claims on Sita Rama Project Progress

HYDERABAD: The state government on Tuesday trashed the BRS’ claims that 90 per cent of the work on the Sita Rama lift irrigation project (SRLIP) was completed by the previous BRS led government, with irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy revealing that the previous regime had completed just 39 per cent of it.

Addressing a press conference along with his Cabinet colleague, revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the BRS leader T. Harish Rao was making false claims on the project. Not only did the previous BRS government manage to complete just 39 per cent of the work as per the financial progress of the project, but no permission from the Central Water Commission was secured by the BRS government as claimed by Harish Rao, he said.

“The fact is that it is following the efforts of our government that the project has been allocated 67 tmc ft of water from the Godavari. With respect to the claims about just how much work was completed, the BRS government spent Rs 7,230 core of the Rs 18,236 crore the project needs. How can this equate to 90 per cent of the work being completed,” Uttam Kumar Reddy asked.

He said Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy would switch on three pumps of the project marking the start of operations at the SRLIP on August 15. “Our government is committed to providing irrigation to the entire erstwhile Khammam district as well as stabilise the area served by the Nagarjunasagar project using Godavari water from the Sitarama project, he explained.

He said the reason for the BRS government led by former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to redesign the Rajiv Dummugudem lift irrigation scheme and the Indirasagar Rudramakonda LIS was for looting commissions. The original projects as conceived by the then Congress government would have cost Rs 3,505 crore versus the Rs 18,286 crore for the redesigned project. Around Rs 1,958 crore was already spent on the original plans. Had another Rs 1,500 crore been invested in the two projects, four lakh acres could have been provided irrigation” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

“The Sita Rama project may have been started by the BRS government but it did not even pay the power utilities so the pumps could be tried out. It was the Congress government which worked cleared the dues, and ensured that the project can begin working,” he said.

Srinivas Reddy said the BRS government only was interested in parts of the project that would get its leaders commissions, and this is the reason why pumps were installed first as the highest commissions would come from this activity. He also took serious objection to Harish Rao saying people of Khammam would not take Congress seriously for its claims on the project.

“The BRS leaders should be well aware of the pride of the people from Khammam who have already seen through the BRS and its leaders' intentions and showed them their place in the elections. People from Khammam did not believe the BRS and have no right to talk about people from the district,” Srinivas Reddy said.