Kaleshwaram Project Now Useless: Uttam Kumar Reddy

Minister for Irrigation Uttam Kumar Reddy today informed the Assembly that the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) had been damaged due to poor design, quality and corruption, and that the project was currently useless and would not be filled with water.

Reddy released a white paper on the Telangana irrigation projects and later made a PowerPoint presentation on the subject in the Assembly.

Addressing the House, the Minister said that the destructive irrigation policies adopted by the previous government had put the State in great risk, and that the wrong policies, huge debts and corruption imposed a huge burden on the State.

He said former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had acted as the chief engineer and chief designer for the Kaleshwaram project, and had executed the project without taking the experts' suggestions into consideration.

"It is very shameful that the BRS MLAs are making the counter allegations against the government, instead of tendering an unconditional apology to the people of Telangana for their failure," Reddy said.

"The entire Telangana irrigation sector has crumbled due to the damage to the barrages the pump houses constructed on the Godavari. The State economy is also in a precarious condition after the last government spent Rs 1.81 lakh crore in the name of irrigation projects. The State's exchequer is hugely stressed from the debt burden, and we need to repay Rs 1.35 lakh crore in the next 10 years," he said.

He also alleged that there had never been such huge corruption in the irrigation department, and that the Medigadda barrage, which was supposed to last a hundred years, had reached the verge of collapsing.

He also said that the total ayacut before the formation of Telangana was 58 lakh acres, and Rs 54,234 crore had been spent on it, and in the 10 years so far after the creation of Telangana State (2014-2023), the BRS government had created 16 lakh more acres of ayacut at a cost of Rs 1,81,067 crore. As per the estimations, a total irrigation facility of 128 lakh acres would be created once the ongoing projects were completed. Rs 97,774 crore were required to complete all the remaining projects and create the remaining 54 lakh acres of additional ayacut, Reddy said.

The total loan repayment burden with interest in the next five years was Rs 77,369 crore, and the total requirement of funds to complete the remaining projects was Rs 1,75,143 crore. It would cost Rs 3.4 lakh to provide irrigation facility per acre, the minister said.

Reddy also said that the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) had stated that the Annaram and Sundilla barrages were also in the danger zone, and that the power consumption by just the Kaleswaram project was more than the electricity used in all sectors of the entire State of Telangana.

"At present, the works on the various irrigation projects are progressing in various stages, and they will be completed without any scope for corruption," the minister claimed.