BRS betrayed Krishna water interests: Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy

Telangana’s failure to fully utilise its river water entitlements is the result of two “historic blunders” committed during the previous BRS government’s tenure, alleged Minister for Irrigation and Civil Supplies N. Uttam Kumar Reddy. Addressing the State Assembly through a detailed PowerPoint presentation on river water management, the Minister said these decisions had caused long-term damage to the young state’s water security.

Uttam Kumar Reddy stated that clear and verifiable data on Krishna river water utilisation has been available since K. Chandrashekar Rao assumed office as Chief Minister. He pointed out that Krishna water usage increased during 2024-25 under the Congress government, contradicting claims made by the BRS.

The Minister accused the previous government of deliberately altering key irrigation project designs initiated during the Congress regime in undivided Andhra Pradesh, leading to financial losses and reduced benefits for Telangana. One such example, he said, was the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme. Originally designed to draw water from the Jurala project, the intake point was shifted to the Srisailam reservoir, which he termed a serious injustice to Telangana, particularly the erstwhile Mahabubnagar district.

Similarly, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Pranahita-Chevella project was originally planned to utilise Godavari waters at Tummidihatti. Shifting the intake point to Medigadda, and later merging the project into the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, resulted in severe technical and financial setbacks. According to him, both these changes produced negative outcomes and failed to deliver irrigation benefits.

He alleged that these modifications were driven by an intention to erase the Congress government’s imprint on major projects. Despite spending over ₹1.83 lakh crore on irrigation during the BRS regime, the state received little tangible benefit, Uttam claimed. He also criticised the previous government for borrowing at high interest rates of 11-11.5 per cent, burdening future generations. In contrast, he said the present Congress government had refinanced these loans at lower interest rates, easing the state’s financial stress.

Calling the Palamuru-Rangareddy project a symbol of the “betrayal” under BRS rule, the Minister said that had the original Jurala intake been retained, the project would have delivered higher returns at a lower cost. Instead, the project cost rose sharply - from ₹32,000 crore to ₹55,000 crore by the time the Detailed Project Report was submitted to the Central Water Commission in 2022. He warned that the final cost could reach ₹80,000-84,000 crore upon completion.

Uttam Kumar Reddy dismissed claims by the BRS that 90 per cent of the project had been completed, stating that not a single acre has received irrigation water so far. He added that land acquisition for nearly 39,000 acres is still pending.

On the Kaleshwaram project, the Minister said relocating the Pranahita-Chevella intake to Medigadda resulted in three barrages remaining under repair, yielding virtually no irrigation benefits. He alleged that Telangana failed to utilise its rightful share of water from both the Krishna and Godavari river basins during the BRS tenure.

He further claimed that while the BRS attempted to increase Kaleshwaram’s daily water drawal from 2 TMC to 3 TMC, it simultaneously reduced the capacity of the Palamuru-Rangareddy scheme from 1.5 TMC to 1 TMC. Promises to complete the Palamuru-Rangareddy project by 2018 were not fulfilled, he said.

At the time the BRS government left office, Uttam Kumar Reddy revealed, pending bills amounted to nearly ₹40,000 crore, of which about ₹10,000 crore pertained to the irrigation department alone.