Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday operationalised the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) intended to irrigate 12.3 lakh acres of uplands by switching on the first pump of the first-stage lift of the project at Yellur-Narlapur in Nagarkurnool district.
ADVERTISEMENT
Within 10 minutes of switching on the pump at the control room by the Chief Minister, water started gushing out of the delivery cistern to allow flow of Krishna water into the Narlapur reservoir. Along with Ministers, MPs, MLAs and officials led by Chief Secretary A.Santhi Kumari, Mr.Rao offered prayers to the river waters.
The water flowing into the reservoir was filled into ‘kalashams’ to be taken to every village of the combined Mahabubnagar district for pouring them on the village deities.
Earlier, he reached the first-stage lift control room at Yellur-Narlpaur and unveiled a pylon as a symbolic mark of the inauguration of PRLIS and planted a sapling at the control room. He took part in a ‘pooja’ organised there and switched on the first pump with a click of the computer-mouse.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by Ministers S.Niranjan Reddy, V.Srinivas Goud, P.Mahender Reddy, P.Sabitha Indra Reddy and C.Malla Reddy, MLAs B.Harshavardhan Reddy, C.Laxma Reddy, A.Venkateshwar Reddy, G.Balaraju, G.Jaipal Yadav, MPs K.Keshava Rao, P.Ramulu, M.Srinivas Reddy, Chief Secretary ASanthi Kumari, Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar, Secretary in the CMO Smita Sabharwal, Engineer-in-Chief C.Muralidhar, Adviser to Government (LI Schemes) K.Penta Reddy and project engineers at the inaugural event.