The exclusion of Ranga Reddy district, whose 95 per cent land lies in the Krishna basin, from the coverage of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project is a strategic decision taken by the Telangana Government to protect the State’s rights on the Krishna waters, at a time when the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal is hearing the riparian states before notifying the award.
“It was with a conspiracy in mind to deny Telangana its due share in Krishna waters, the decision makers in the erstwhile combined Andhra Pradesh had included Ranga Reddy in the Pranahita-Chevella project coverage area and planned Dummugudem-Nagarjunasagar tail pond project by proposing to give (divert) Godavari water to the Krishna basin areas. The problem has become much more complex after separation of Telangana from combined AP,” a key functionary in Telangana Government said.
Under Pranahita-Chevella it was proposed to irrigate over 2.4 lakh acres in Ranga Reddy district and with the Dummugudem-NSP tail pond project it was planned with a view to deny assured water with gravity flow from Krishna (NSP) to over 6.1 lakh acres in Nalgonda and Khammam districts by lifting water from Godavari. Keeping in mind the interests of future generations of Telangana, it was decided to delink Ranga Reddy from Kaleshwaram project, the redesigned version of Pranahita-Chevella and instead give water to 5.5 lakh acres in the district under Palamuru-Ranga Reddy project by lifting water from Krishna, the sources explained.
According to the government functionary, Telangana would have been made to forego its right on about 100 TMC ft of assured Krishna water with the two plans of the erstwhile AP dispensation “now we (Telangana) are demanding additional allocation of 90 TMC ft water in Krishna in lieu of diversion of Godavari waters by AP – 45 TMC ft against diversion through Pattiseema and another 45 TMC ft due to diversion with the help of Polavaram project”.
