Palamuru BRS leaders urge govt. to run KLIP pumps 24x7, fill tanks

BRS leaders speaking after visiting stage-3 pump house of KLIP in Wanaparthy district on Friday. Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders of the combined Mahabubnagar (Palamuru) district visited Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Project stage-three pump house at Gowridevipally in Revally mandal of Wanaparthy district and demanded that the government run all the KLIP pumps round-the-clock to fill minor irrigation tanks linked to it and balancing reservoirs till water is available in Srisailam reservoir.

This was necessary since Andhra Pradesh had been drawing huge quantities, almost 10 times more than what Telangana had been drawing, of water to the areas outside the basin. Former Ministers S. Niranjan Reddy, Dr. C. Laxma Reddy and V.

Srinivas Goud, and former legislators M. Janardhan Reddy and B. Harshavardhan Reddy said it was unfortunate that the Congress Government was unable to give water to farmers despite availability. They alleged that AP was drawing about 10 to 12 tmc ft of water every day from Srisailam.

Even if Telangana runs KLIP pumps 200 days a year, only 40 tmc ft could be drawn, they noted. Stating that water could be given for the Rabi (Yasangi) crop too, the BRS leaders said A.P. had drawn 70 tmc ft of water from Pothireddypadu alone during the last 15 days.

The KLIP pumps were not functioning fully due to disruptions in power supply, they alleged.