Inauguration of the first pumphouse of the Palamrur Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme took place in Narlapur in Nagarkurnool district.
Published Sep 16, 2023 | 9:12 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 16, 2023 | 11:02 PM
Telangana Chief Minister KCR at the commissioning of the first PRLIS pumphouse. (X)
After the high-optics commissioning of the Narlapur pumphouse motors of the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) in Nagarkurnool district, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao urged the people to help the BRS continue the good work it had commenced in the state — not only in irrigation, but in several other sectors — to convert it into a land of prosperity.
Interestingly, the chief minister steered clear of attacking the grand old party, even as a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) — the party’s highest decision-making body — was in progress in Hyderabad.
Instead, he chose to criticise Telangana BJP leaders for obstructing the state’s irrigation projects.
The chief minister, who arrived by road at Narlapur in the afternoon on Saturday, 16 September, switched on the huge 145MW “Bahubali” motors of the pumphouse, which is the first of the 31 pumphouses to be set up as part of PRLIS.
He later performed pooja to the Krishna waters as they poured into the Anjanagiri reservoir from the surge pool at the pumphouse.
Later, KCR arrived in Kollapur where he addressed a public meeting for which farmers from all parts of erstwhile Mahabubangar and Rangareddy districts were mobilised. He exhorted them to take back the Krishna waters in vessels and use them to wash the feet of the presiding deities of their villages on Sunday.
The event marking the commissioning of the pumps of the PRLIS is loaded with political significance as it comes a few months before the BRS faces Assembly elections in the state in November-December.
In a way, the commissioning of the first pumphouse of Phase 1 of PRLIS is being seen as yet another major project coming up in Telangana in erstwhile Mahabubnagar district, to the west of Hyderabad.
In the north, Kaleshwaram is already in place and, in the south, the construction of the Seetharama Lift Irrigation Scheme is in progress in the erstwhile Khammam district.
The chief minister lashed out at the local BJP leaders for trying to obstruct his convoy of cars as he was approaching Narlapur.
An annoyed KCR asked: “Why are the BJP workers trying to stop me? What wrong am I committing? I have one lakh followers here. Had I given a signal, that handful of BJP workers would have been blown away.”
He asked the state BJP leaders why they had not been able to persuade the prime minister to write to the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal to decide Telangana’s share of the river’s waters.
All about PRLIS.
“They should hang their heads in shame for remaining silent. They did not do it, even though the BJP has been in power for more than nine years. The Telangana government went to the Supreme Court when the Union government was taking too long in writing to the tribunal.
“Then the Union government asked Telangana to withdraw its case in the Supreme Court for it to write to the tribunal. We did it last year — and yet nothing has moved,” he charged.
He said that when the PRLIS is completely in place, the entire state would shine like a diamond, adding that it was unfortunate that those were obstructing the progress of Telangana were from the state itself.
“We could have completed the PRLIS three years ago had these people not created obstacles to its construction. We got the environment clearance only recently, and we are not wasting any time in completing the entire project,” he said.
The chief minister said that no development took place in Telangana when the state was part of united Andhra Pradesh before 2014.
When the Bachawat Tribunal was giving its award in 1975, the judge took pity on Telangana and directed that a 17 tmcft-capacity project be built at Jurala on the Krishna river at a time no leader from Telangana raised their voice for justice for the region, KCR contended.
Even after the Bachawat award directed the construction of the Jurala project, no leader from Andhra took any interest in its construction till 1981.
“It was only after 1981 that then Telangana chief minister T Anjaiah laid the foundation stone for the project. And it was only much later, in 2001 — when I, as a protagonist of the Telangana movement, questioned the delay in the construction of the canal network — that the then chief minister Chandrababu Naidu started the work,” KCR said.
KCR said his dream was to ensure that 20 lakh acres of 12 Assembly segments in the erstwhile district Mahabubnagar can avail of the irrigation system.
“This district has sent me to Lok Sabha, and that was when I could get statehood for Telangana. After the division of the state, the BRS government has been taking up one project after the other, to set the historical wrongs right,” he said.
He asked the crowd not to be confused by the campaign of calumny against the BRS, which has been selflessly working for the development of all parts of the state.
“We have fought for 60 years for Telangana. Don’t let the momentum of progress get derailed,” he said, implying that they should vote for the BRS in the next elections, scheduled for November-December.
