The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders from Prakasam district on Tuesday urged Union Water Resources Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to take immediate measures to include the Pula Subbaiah Veligonda project, which envisages bringing Krishna water from the foreshore of Srisailam reservoir to the drought-prone parts of Andhra Pradesh, in the gazette notification.
On the eve of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) meeting on water sharing between the two Telugu-speaking States, a delegation of TDP leaders met the Union Minister in New Delhi and explained the latter that the ₹7,500-crore project was the lifeline of Prakasam district and it figured in the A.P. State Reorganisation Act, 2014, along with the Handri Neeva, Galeru Nagari, Telugu Ganga, Kalvakuruthi and Netampadu projects.
People of the drought-prone parts of Prakasam, Nellore and Kadapa districts are worried over the exclusion of the project from the gazette notification issued for the administration by the KRMB at a time when the first phase of the project is almost complete and water release is expected any time soon, explained the TDP MLAs Dola Balaveeranjaneya Swamy, G. Ravikumar and Yeluri Sambasiva Rao.
Former MLAs M. Ugra Narasimha Reddy, B. Rama Rao, B.N. Vijaykumar and Kandula Narayana Reddy were the other members of the delegation. They said the project was taken up in 1996 after obtaining the mandatory approvals from the Centre. The project envisages providing irrigation water to 4.59 lakh acres of land and drinking water to 15.50 lakh people in the fluorosis-hit parts of the three districts.
The project would benefit nine Assembly constituencies—six in Prakasam district, two in SPSR Nellore district and one in YSR Kadapa district— in Andhra Pradesh, explained TDP State vice-president Damacharla Janardhana Rao and TDP Ongole Lok Sabha unit president N. Balaji.
Riparian issues
The TDP leaders alleged that the YSRCP government had not represented the riparian issues in an appropriate manner to the Centre, adding that it was unfortunate that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy remained silent when the Telangana government urged the Centre to stop funding the project, claiming that it was an illegal one.
The Union Minister responded favourably to the request and said that he had not received any representation from the State government in this regard, the TDP leaders claimed.
