Telangana to seek 100 TMC water from Koyna, to reimburse Maharashtra in cash

HYDERABAD: Minister for Irrigation and Civil Supplies N Uttam Kumar Reddy urged officials to speed up project works and complete them by the end of the current year to add additional ayacut of at least 4.5 to 5 lakh acres.

The Minister held a review meeting at Jalasoudha on Saturday along with Secretary Irrigation Rahul Bojja and Engineer-in-chief Irrigation and Command Area Development (I&CAD) C Muralidhar.

He said that the Government would request Maharashtra to provide 100 TMC water to Telangana through Koyna project and the State would reimburse the amount that Maharashtra would incur by losing hydel power production at the 1,920 MW power project.

The Government also decided to seek 10 TMC of water from Karnataka to meet the present drinking water needs of the State. A team led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy would visit that State to formally request release of Krishna water.

The Minister laid stress on projects that add new ayacut. He pointed out that even though huge amounts of loans were taken and spent by the earlier Governments, they failed to add any additional ayacut. “We must now spend the optimum amount of funds to complete and add new ayacut,” he said.

He suggested that the department must take up and complete all those projects that could irrigate new ayacut by the next monsoon by clearing all hurdles. He said that irrigation could be provided with the help of 18 projects under the Krishna and Godavari River basins in the State by the end of the current year.

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Advising the I&CAD officials to prepare detailed information about the new ayacut to be created by the Government in the coming five years, the Minister reiterated the need to irrigate additional ayacut. “Let us take this up on war footing. Also, start works to irrigate Manthani Constituency with the help of Chinna Kaleshwaram project,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

He wanted the Irrigation officials to complete the desilting of minor irrigation structures in the summer and also asked them to complete the clearing of shrubs to make the waterbodies ready to receive and retain rainwater. He sought work on small-scale lift irrigation projects under the IDC jurisdiction.

He pointed out that the vigilance inquiry had begun on the errors committed by the earlier Government in constructing the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project. “We also urged the Telangana High Court to provide a sitting judge for a judicial inquiry into the entire KLIP issue,” he said.