Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has vowed to complete the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift irrigation schemes at any cost and asked the Apex Council not to consider the contentions raised by Andhra Pradesh which said that they were new projects and were “totally wrong and baseless”. He, however, promised that the projects would draw water as allocated by the river water disputes tribunal.
Intervening during a PowerPoint presentation by the Telangana government, Mr. Rao informed the meeting that Palamuru -Ranga Reddy and Dindi were ongoing projects taken up by the combined Andhra Pradesh based on the liberty given by Bachawat tribunal to utilise surplus water. The State allocated water to the projects and gave administrative approval for detailed survey and preparation of detailed project report by a Government Order (GO).
Early completion of Palamuru -Ranga Reddy project was also the election promise of all the parties in 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed himself to the project at his public meeting in Mahabubnagar in April that year, Mr. Rao said, releasing the clippings of the election manifestos of the BJP, Congress and the TDP and the video speech of Mr. Modi with Mr. Chandrababu Naidu by his side.
He also released a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office in December 2010 seeking the State government’s proposal to consider Dindi as a national project. The meeting witnessed heated exchanges between Mr. Naidu and Telangana Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao when the former commented that the disputes between the two States could be resolved by a friendly approach. Mr. Rao counselled restraint and Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti asked both sides to sit over tea at times to resolve issues.