Drop Telangana irrigation projects from unapproved list: KCR

Hyderabad, Sep 6 : Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday called on Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and urged him to drop 11 projects from the list of unapproved projects in Godavari basin in the notification issued by the Union ministry last month.

During his meeting with Shekhawat in New Delhi, Rao said the 11 projects mentioned as unapproved in Godavari basin as per the gazette notification dated July 15 were started before formation of Telangana and are within the 967.94 TMC share of the state.

Out of this allocation, projects for 758.76 TMC are already cleared by the Central Water Commission (CWC) and water availability has been cleared by the Hydrology Directorate for another 148.82 TMC. The balance allocation of 60.26 TMC has been kept as a reserve for future projects, evaporation losses etc, the Chief Minister said in a letter submitted to the Union Minister.

He also contended that the additional 1 TMC/day of Kaleshwaram project is not an additional nor a new project, and has only been taken up with state government funds to utilise the 240 TMC allocation made to the Kaleshwara project by the CWC, within a shorter time period, and as such, does not require any approval of the Central government.

"Kandakurthy LIS is a minor scheme serving an ayacut of 3,300 acres and does not require any appraisal. The Ramappa Pakhal Link and Tupakulagudem barrage, which are part of the Devadula Project, do not require any new approval. The Gudem LIS is a part of the approved Kaddam project, constructed to serve the tail end areas and does not need any approval. Finally Kanthanapally, which is non-existent, may also be dropped from the list of unapproved projects," the letter added.

Rao urged Shekhawat to issue appropriate directions to the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) and the CWC for taking immediate action.