Hyderabad: Irrigation and civil supplies minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Friday accused the previous BRS government of wasting public money while failing to create meaningful irrigation benefits for the farmers. Addressing a press conference along with chief minister A Revanth Reddy at the conclusion of a two-day inspection tour of irrigation projects in Mahabubnagar district, Uttam said the Congress government had undertaken the exercise with a clear objective of accelerating all ongoing and proposed irrigation projects and removing bottlenecks that had delayed their completion for years.
Allegations Against BRS Government
One of the blunders committed by the previous BRS government was shifting the water source for the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme from Jurala to Srisailam, according to Uttam. He claimed that this decision severely damaged the interests of the erstwhile Mahabubnagar district and resulted in huge expenditure without creating even a single acre of assured ayacut.
Incomplete Projects Despite Decade of Rule
Stating that several irrigation schemes in Telangana remained incomplete despite a decade of BRS rule, he pointed out that projects such as Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, Bhima and Koilsagar in Mahabubnagar district remained pending, while the SLBC tunnel in Nalgonda district witnessed little progress for years. Nearly Rs 8,000 crore were spent on the Sitarama project in Khammam district without delivering irrigation benefits on the expected scale. The Kaleshwaram project suffered structural failures during the tenure of the previous BRS government itself, he added.
The Congress government aims to accelerate all ongoing and proposed irrigation projects and remove bottlenecks that have delayed their completion for years. The two-day inspection tour was part of this effort.
