Palamuru Irrigation: Centre Rules Out National Status, Offers Funds

New Delhi, Jan 4 (PTI) The Centre has ruled out the possibility of granting a national status to the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project, but has assured fund support under other schemes, Telangana Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said on Thursday.

Along with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, the Telangana Irrigation Minister met Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekawat and requested him to consider granting a national status to the Palameru-Rangareddy Irrigation project and provide funds.

"The Union minister responded saying that we don't have anything like national project status now but considering on the basis of our representation he will try and accommodate in some other schemes and allot funds for this project," the irrigation minister said after the meeting.

The Union Minister has ruled out a national status to the project because it has stopped doing it since 2014.

In the last 10 years, the central government has not given a national status to any projects, he said.

The Palameru Rangareddy Irrigation project, on which the state government has already spent 40 per cent of the project cost, aims to tackle the extreme drought-prone conditions in six districts by irrigating about 12 lakh acres, he added.

Asked if the state government will let go its demand for national status and accept funds from other schemes, the irrigation minister said, "The chief minister will take a call."

The project is important, especially for the chief minister, because he had promised bringing irrigation water to his constituency in Kodangal ahead of the recently concluded assembly polls.

Kodangal was to get irrigation water from the Narayanpet-Kodangal Lift irrigation scheme, which was sanctioned in May 2014 just before the BRS (then TRS) government came to power in 2014, but was not possible to provide water from Jurala.

Therefore, the Narayanpet-Kodangal Lift irrigation was included in the proposed Palamuru-Rangareddy irrigation project.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said Telangana has about 90 thousand cubic feet of water and sought early approval from the Central Water Commission to utilise this water for the project.

He said there was no discussion on the Kaleshwaram irrigation project during the meeting.

The minister said a delegation led by the CM will meet the UPSC chief on Friday to discuss restructuring of the Telangana State Public Service Commission on the lines of UPSC to put in place a transparent recruitment process.

"Unemployment is a serious problem in Telangana. The previous government failed the youth in providing employment... the little recruitment they did was marred by paper leak and corruption," he said.