If the averments of Union Minister of State for Petrochemicals and Fertilizers Hansraj Ahir is anything to go by, Maharashtra will have a finger in the pie, with regard to the Rs. 38,500 crore Pranahita-Chevella Lift Irrigation Scheme. Though the mega project does not envisage any ayacut development in the neighbouring State, he stated, “We will have about 2 lakh acres of our land (in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli district) irrigated under the Pranahita project.”
This revelation made on Wednesday during the Union Minister’s visit to Adilabad, adds a new angle to inter-State issues, which hitherto seem to hinge only on the height of barrage of the project and consequent submergence of land in Maharashtra. “A meeting of top level officials from both the States is scheduled to be held at Chandrapur on June 10 or 11 to thrash out issues of submergence and irrigation of land,” he added.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) dispensation had evidently not reckoned with the kind of ‘hurdles’ it is facing now, when it took over the reins of the newly formed State on June 2, 2014. One year down the line, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao seems to have found out that attaining ‘national status’ for the Lift Irrigation Scheme is not the only tough task he is faced with.
The first hurdle reportedly came in February during the meeting of Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Telangana when the former objected to the height of the barrage proposed across the Pranahita river near Tummidi-Hatti village in Koutala mandal of Adilabad district. The neighbouring government wanted Telangana to reduce the proposed height by a few metres from the planned 152 metres to contain submergence.
This had Mr. Rao proposing to relocate the site of the barrage 120 km downstream, in a bid to overcome the issue. “This was just a knee jerk reaction instead of a well-planned strategy,” criticised the working president of Adilabad District Congress Committee, Naresh Jadhav.
After committing himself to changing the location, the Telangana Chief Minister sprung a surprise by reneging. He now says the barrage of the Pranahita project will come up at the originally planned site.
The government did some explaining on the issue a few days back and said a final decision on shifting the barrage location would be taken in September. The decision to shift, if at all, will be based on the less than the desired 160 tmc of water available at Tummidi-Hatti among other things, the government stated.
Meanwhile, recognition of the project Lift Irrigation Scheme as a national project still hangs fire what with several imponderables in the way. There is also a political side to the issue as the TRS does not seem to enjoy cordial relations with the BJP at the Centre.