Congress Member of Legislative Council T. Jeevan Reddy has ridiculed Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for claiming that the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project would provide irrigation to 75 lakh to 80 lakh acres in the State.
“How can the Chief Minister claim that the KLIP would irrigate 80 lakh acres when the project was designed to provide irrigation to only 18 lakh acres,” he asked. It requires some 800 tmc ft water to provide irrigation to 80 lakh acres, he said and asked how many tmc ft of water was being lifted through the Kaleshwaram project.
Talking to newsmen here on Tuesday, Mr. Jeevan Reddy asked how much knowledge the CM had on the irrigation projects and the water required for the irrigation of 80 lakh acres. “Is it necessary to listen to whatever the CM says even if it is illogical and a bluff,” he asked and alleged that the State government was cheating the people with false claims on KLIP.
The Congress government had designed the Pranahita Chevella Lift Irrigation Project at an estimated cost of ₹ 38,000 crore to provide irrigation to 16 lakh acres with less consumption of power, he said and alleged that the TRS government had increased the cost of the project to over ₹ one lakh crore in the name of redesigning and named at as KLIP to irrigate 18 lakh acres with more lifts and consumption of more power.
Claiming that the Congress party had taken up the MMD reservoir as part of ‘Jalayagnam’ programme, he found fault with the TRS government for not completing the small stretch of SRSP flood flow canal which would directly fill the Lower Manair dam. Instead, the government had now designed Flood flow canal in such a manner that it would first fill the MMD and later release water into the LMD, he said.
Launching a scathing attack against the State government for ordering the police to lathicharge MMD land oustees during the CM’s visit to Vemulawada, he asked whether the Telangana State was given to Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao. He reminded that the land oustees of MMD were demanding that the CM fulfil his promise of providing double bedroom housing scheme and other assurances made to them.
He also found fault with the state government for not providing Rythu bandhu financial assistance, waiver of crop loans and providing crop loans at four % interest rate.
Asserting that they were not against the construction of check-dams, he urged the government to first lift the water from the MMD to Upper Manair Dam which was close to Sircilla Assembly segment represented by Minister for IT K. Tarakarama Rao instead of lifting the same to the Ananthagiri, Mallannasagar and Kondapochamma project.
He also demanded that the government build the lift scheme at a cost of ₹ 8 crore to provide irrigation to 10,000 acres in Gumlapur and other villages which were lost due to the Laxmipur pump house.
