The government had pressed the full official machinery into the speedy completion of the projects, the CM said in his PowerPoint presentation to the Assembly.
Stating that the TRS government was on mission mode to irrigate one crore acres to make Telangana "a green belt" and a "koti ratanala veena" in three to five years, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today said that he would fulfil the manifesto promise of completing irrigation projects by making changes in designs for better use of waters.
The Chief Minister was giving a marathon presentation on the floor of the Assembly using PowerPoint and Google Maps, of his plans for completing the irrigation projects in coordination with the Maharashtra government.
Despite the many hurdles being created by the Opposition parties, the TRS government would continue its efforts towards the speedy completion of the projects, he declared.
"This year, we are spending only Rs 25,000 crores for irrigation projects, and will use another Rs 5,000 crores for the same during the next financial year," he said. "We will complete 60% to 70% works in three years, and the rest in another two years."
Telangana could irrigate only 19 lakh acres in the united AP regime, but would make use of 954 TMC Godavari waters now, he said. Taking a dig at the previous governments for deliberately ignoring the irrigation sector of the Telangana region for six decades even as Maharashtra and Karnataka were building projects, he sought to know why the rulers of united Andhra Pradesh could not focus on it.
"Our region was put to persistent discrimination by them by projecting Telangana's projects as inter-State controversies. During the 60 years of inefficient rule, our farmers led miserable lives while lakes and water bodies wore a deserted look. The previous rulers like Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and others sabotaged the completion of the projects in the Telangana region while ensuring waters to the Rayalaseema region downstream. Southern Telangana districts like Mahabubnagar, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda were deliberately ignored, resulting in woeful lives for the farmers and other people and forcing them to migrate and to face severe health problems due to fluoride. However, our plans will ensure that we wipe away the tears of farmers by transforming these parched lands into green fields through abundant distribution of irrigation waters," KCR added.
He also disclosed that Telangana was currently left with only Pranahita and Indravathi as the main sources of waters for irrigation in the wake of Maharashtra constructing many projects and barrages across the Krishna and Godavari rivers.
He added that the Kaleswaram and Medigadda projects would be taken up soon, and that Pranahita-Chevella was essentially redesigned by increasing the 16 TMC ayacut to a 200 TMC ayacut, which automatically increased the estimates.
KCR justified the redesigning of the projects as aimed at drawing more waters. "We will make ample use of the waters allotted to the region by the Krishna River Board, and tap waters from upstream by working with the Maharashtra government, which is soon expected to sign a deal with us to this effect," he said.
The Chief Minister also informed the House about the reports of the Central Water Commission on projects, water allocations made, projects built, projects left incomplete, waters used and waters diverted to other regions at the cost of Telangana. With Maharashtra completing 31 projects and executing nine more projects on the Godavari at various places, the Telangana region would lose 1,300 TMC waters, he said. These projects would not offer a single drop of water to the SRSP, Srisailam and Manjira, he explained.
KCR accused the previous governments of failing to complete the SRSP even after many years. Now the Centre had assured that it would give permission to set up two shafts for speedy completion of the works.
"At this juncture, we need to avoid a spar and work in a friendly manner with Maharashtra to get our rightful share," KCR stated. "We have plans to complete the Kalwakurthy project to irrigate 1.50 lakh acres by next June and 3.40 lakh acres by June 2017," he added.
The TRS government had pressed the full official machinery into the speedy completion of the projects, he said, and vowed to complete all the projects, including the Palamur, Dindi and other projects, quickly.