Former Irrigation Minister Harish Rao said that the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme was taken up because Maharashtra did not agree to the construction of the Tummidihetti barrage proposed in the Pranahita-Chevella project. He said that the project was proposed as seven links, but six links in Kaleshwaram were kept as is and only one was changed.
On Monday, he appeared before the Justice PC Ghosh Commission for a hearing and said that after the formation of Telangana state, the projects were re-engineered only after inter-state issues, entanglements in the Central Water Resources Commission (CWC), and construction problems.
He said that for this, he had formed a cabinet sub-committee with him as the chairman and then ministers Etala Rajender and Tummala Nageswara Rao as members. He said that the Pranahita-Chevella were re-engineered based on the recommendations of the cabinet sub-committee.
He said that the Pranahita-Chevella projects were divided into two projects, one was built at Tummidi Hatti and the other was taken up as Dr. BR Ambedkar Pranahita to irrigate the joint Adilabad, and the other was taken up as the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme. He said that the barrage site was changed to Medigadda only after the CWC said that there was no water availability at Tummidi Hatti.
He recalled that the then Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan had also written a letter to the joint AP Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy saying that he would not accept a barrage with a height of 152 feet. He said that after BJP came to power in Maharashtra, Telangana Chief Minister KCR held talks with Devendra Fadnavis. He said that Fadnavis had said, ‘I myself have campaigned against the Pranahita-Chevella flooding. How can I give such permissions?’
Harish Rao made it clear that the re-engineering decision was taken based on Maharashtra’s objections and the CWC’s letter on water availability. When the commission asked whether the Kaleshwaram project had cabinet approval, Harish Rao replied that there was a cabinet resolution for each component.
Was the decision to change the locations of the barrages taken by the High Power Committee? When the commission asked whether there was a meeting with the High Power Committee after the VAPCOS letter, they said that the High Power Committee was a purely technical committee and that the government had accepted the recommendations made by the committee on changing the locations of the barrages.
Harish reminded that even after the projects were proposed, the construction sites were changed, Nagarjunasagar was initially proposed to be built at Yeleswaram and then shifted to Nandikonda, similarly, the Sriram Sagar project was initially proposed at Kistapuram and then shifted to Pochampadu, and that there are records in many projects that were changed after the reservoirs were proposed.
