BRS slams govt for operating Rampur pump house after calling Kaleshwaram project ‘useless’

The State government had contradicted its own criticism of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project by operating the Rampur pump house, a component of the project’s reverse pumping system.

The government operated the Rampur pump house motors in Jagtial constituency to lift Godavari water into the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) flood flow canal through the reverse pumping system. The initiative is expected to provide irrigation water to nearly two lakh acres in Jagtial and Nizamabad districts.

Welcoming the move, former Minister and Balkonda MLA Vemula Prashanth Reddy said the Congress government, which had repeatedly claimed that the Kaleshwaram project had collapsed and was of no use, had now started the Rampur pump house motors.

He



said the decision exposed what he described as the government’s earlier campaign against the project. Since Godavari water was being pumped into the SRSP flood canal through the Rampur pump house, Congress leaders should acknowledge that it was an integral part of the Kaleshwaram project, he added.

Prashanth Reddy also urged the government to immediately operationalise the Rajeshwar Rao Peta pump house on the SRSP flood canal, as water was already being pumped from Rampur to the Mid Manair reservoir.

Pointing to the increase in SRSP storage to 25 TMC following heavy rainfall over the past week, he demanded that the government also operationalise the Lakshmi, Vempalli, Bodepalli, Choutpalli Hanumanth Reddy, Gutpa and Alisagar lift irrigation schemes.