With the Brijesh Kumar tribunal allowing Karnataka to increase the height of Almatti dam to 524.26 m, the lower riparian state of Andhra Pradesh is in dire need to go for Pattiseema project to overcome water shortage till completion of Polavaram project, according to Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao.
Pattiseema project would be completed in a year and Polavaram project in four years at any cost to overcome water deficit in Krishna delta as also Nagarjunasgar and Srisailam command areas through inter-basin transfer, said the Minister after inspecting the Gudalakamma reservoir in Prakasam district late on Saturday night.
He blamed the erstwhile YSR government for not arguing the State’s cause effectively before the Krishna water disputes tribunal and said “the State government is leaving no stone unturned to get a favourable verdict in the Supreme Court at a time when Karnataka presses for early notification of the tribunal award”.
He asserted that all pending major irrigation projects would be completed during the present tenure of the government by spending over Rs 25,000 crore.
Gundlakamma water
Amid loud cheers, he announced that water would be released from Gundlakamma reservoir for khariff farm operations. The first phase of the Rs 5,150 crore Veligonda project would be completed in 2016, he added.
Denying the YSRC’s charge that the ruling TDP had taken up the Pattiseema project for ‘kickbacks’, he retorted saying it was late YSR who had turned ‘Jalayaganam’ into ‘Dhanayaganm’.
Criticising YSRC chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s statements on projects, the Minister questioned as to why the Leader of Opposition did not visit the Gundlakamma project, whose cost went up from Rs 194 crore to Rs 594 crore. ''The project bagged by a firm run by Ongole MP Y.V.Subba Reddy, co-brother of YSR, stood as an example of nepotism'', added the Minister.
The Minister was accompanied by Ongole MLA D.Janardhana Rao and TDP ryots wing State president Karnam Balarama Krishnamurthy.
The lift irrigation project will address State’s water woes, says the Irrigation Minister