BRS Chief T. Harish Rao and others visited Devannapet pump station of Devadula Lift Irrigation Scheme in Warangal district on Friday. | Photo credit: By arrangement
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) floor leader in the Assembly and former minister T. Harish Rao on Friday accused the Congress government of deliberately stopping the lifting of water from the Devadula project and causing severe hardship to farmers in Warangal district despite sufficient water flow in the Godavari river.
Along with several other party leaders, he visited the third pumping station of the Devadula Lift Irrigation Scheme at Devannapet in Warangal district, which was not operational as the engines were switched off.
On this occasion he said that the government is not turning on the engines although there is sufficient flow in the river and ayacut needs water. He said about 16,000 cusecs of water flowed in Godavari near Sammakka Sagar on Friday.
Recalling that Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy had announced on March 18 last year that the engines would be switched on but left the site without ensuring that the pumps would actually start working. Due to non-functioning of pumps last year, crops dried up in nearly 60,000 acres causing huge losses to farmers, he said.
This season, water lifting has not been done for the last 10 days, affecting the ayacut in Jangaon, Palakurthi and Station Ghanpur constituencies, while the Gandiramaram ropeway was not operational due to lack of water. Demanding immediate operation of all Devadula engines at full capacity and urgent steps to supply water to at least 3.5 lakh hectares to protect farmers this season, Mr. Harish Rao said officials were citing “repairs” and “software issues” as excuses.
He pointed out that the third phase of the Devadula project, including the 49.5 km tunnel from Ramappa to Unikicherla, touted as one of the longest tunnels in the world, was completed under the BRS government. Built at a depth of 155 meters, the Devannapeta pump house is among the deepest in the world, he noted.
The BRS leader said their government has expanded ayacut from about 47,000 acres to over 3.17 lakh acres. Maintenance funds of about ₹8 crore were not released to the suppliers last year, he pointed out, saying this resulted in pumps remaining idle and resulted in crop loss estimated at ₹700-800 crore.
Although the Bhimganpur pumping station has a capacity to lift 2,160 cusecs, only about 1,700 cusecs were lifted and only five or six engines were running instead of all 10. He also sought to know why lift irrigation points like Gandiramaram were closed when farmers were in dire need of water.
Published – 20 Feb 2026 21:16 IST