The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) demanded that the state government withdraw its letter to the Jal Shakti Ministry seeking environmental clearance for the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) with 45 tmc ft of water instead of the proposed 90 tmc ft and protect Telangana’s water rights for the originally intended amount of pursu.
The A. Revanth Reddy-led Congress government has worked against the interests of Telangana since day one and almost handed over irrigation projects to two river boards, senior party leader and former minister T. Harish Rao said here on Monday. However, the government relented after BRS founder and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao raised his voice against the move, he told a press conference.
Mr. Harish Rao said he hit out at Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy for what he (Harish Rao) termed as “nonsensical remarks” against Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao and the BRS on the Telangana irrigation front in 2014-23. He sought to know the rationale behind Mr. Reddy’s claim that the Center had returned a detailed project report (DPR) of PRLIS in 2023, when seven clearances were secured that year, including clearances from the Central Electricity Authority, Central Soil and Material Research Station, Department of Tribal Affairs and Central Ground Water Board.
He explained that the DPR was returned to the state in April 2023, but the BRS government returned to the Ministry of Justice within three days and Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao spoke to the ministry officials to instruct the Central Water Commission and various directorates to continue the PRLIS evaluation process. However, when the DLR came back again in December 2024, the Congress government remained silent and did not make a single clearance in two years.
As if this was not enough, Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy wrote to the Center seeking an EC for PRLIS with only 45 tmc ft of water, the BRS leader said, adding that he (Harish Rao) had already explained on the Assembly floor how the provisional shares of 299:512 tmc State formation and tmc tmc ft water formation were allocated. The BRS government had opposed it since 2014, including referring the matter to KWDT-II for water redistribution.
He explained that in 2020-21, Telangana became the number one producer of paddy in the country with the production of 141 thousand tonnes in Kharif with the help of Kaleshwaram project. A total of 17.24 lakh acres of new ayacut was irrigated and stabilization of another 31.5 lakh acres was done during 2014-23, while the Congress government did not even give water to 11,000 acres of the 11.61 lakh acres promised in the first two years.
Published – 22 Dec 2025 20:17 IST
