Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy criticized the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and former Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao for repeatedly spreading lies about the state government’s struggle to protect Telangana’s rightful share of river waters.
They did so fearing that if the repeated untruths were to be accepted as true, the minister said at a press conference on Friday virtually to counter Mr. Harish Rao’s allegations that the Congress government was silent on Andhra Pradesh’s plans to use even Telangana’s share of Krishna and Godavari basin waters.
“We will not give up even one drop of Telangana’s rightful share in the Krishna and Godavari basins and we are fighting with all our might to protest against state interests and stop AP’s water withdrawal plans by raising the issue in various fora like tribunals, courts and the central government,” he said.
On the Polavaram-Nallamalasagar Link Project (PNLP), he said that Union Minister Jal Shakti had written to him (Mr. Reddy) on January 29 that the Center and none of its agencies had given any clearance, including the preliminary project feasibility report and the PFR submitted to AP’s Central Water Commission (CWC) had been sent for their input and that of other riparian states. Even the CWC chairman had written the same to the state government in December.
At a meeting in Delhi on Friday attended by AP and Telangana Irrigation/Water Resources Department officials and chaired by the CWC Chairman, the Irrigation Minister said the state government will negotiate with anyone to protect Telangana’s rights. Telangana officials opposed the inclusion of the PNLP in the agenda of Friday’s meeting and discussed only other Telangana projects that were stalled due to inter-state issues.
When Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy was asked about the economic survey report praising the Kaleshwaram and Mission Kakatiya projects for increasing the irrigated area, he feigned ignorance and said he did not know why the Center had drawn attention to it. Out of the ₹17 crore budget in 10 years, the BRS government spent ₹1.8 crore on the irrigation sector but failed to complete a single project.
The Kaleshwaram project designed and constructed by BRS collapsed with only 160 tmc ft lifted between 2019 and 2023. Of this, about 90 tmc ft was re-released into the sea due to floods. They did not complete Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme after spending ₹27,500 crore and Sita Rama Lift Irrigation project by saving ₹8,500 crore or ongoing projects like Koilsagar, Bhima, Dindi, Srisailam Left Bank Canal and others.
The minister also reasoned that retired bureaucrat Adityanath Das was the adviser (irrigation) by being the competent officer to represent the interests of Telangana and it was the right of the government to appoint any competent person to the post.
Published – 30 Jan 2026 21:12 IST
