Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Sunday said he was personally studying various options with regard to fixing a site for construction of the barrage of the mega Pranahita-Chevella project. He said he was also studying design proposals for the project so that maximum benefit was achieved from it.
Conceding that the Maharashtra government had agreed to lifting of water from the Pranahita but objected only to submergence in its area, the Chief Minister said feasibility of the project was being studied keeping this in mind.
Diversion
He said the government was contemplating even a diversion at Tummidi-Hatti in Koutala mandal of Adilabad district, where the barrage was originally proposed, to draw sufficient water to irrigate 1.5 lakh acres in the district.
While addressing a public meeting after inaugurating the Gudem Lift Irrgation Scheme on the Godavari, Mr. Rao chose to make the government's standpoint clear. He evidently got upset on seeing banners from a handful of protesters demanding that the barrage site not be shifted from Tummidi-Hatti in Koutala mandal.
‘Conspiracy’
Quoting media reports on the Pranahita project issue, the Chief Minister said it was a conspiracy of Andhra people to spread misinformation and convert the issue into an inter-State problem thereby keeping the project in a limbo forever.
He said Andhra rulers had conspired to render the Rs. 38,500-crore project an unfruitful utility since former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy laid the foundation stone for it.
Mr. Rao alleged that of the Rs. 9,000 crore spent so far on the project, Andhra rulers had connived to pocket Rs. 4,000 crore. Asserting that no misappropriation of funds would take place under him and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, government he appealed to people to not to give credence to any misinformation campaign.
