Though Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has been giving high priority for completion of several irrigation projects at an early, most of the project works were halted due to problems surfacing in land acquisition. According to irrigation officials, the government needed immediate acquisition of over 70,000 acres lands for completion of ongoing projects. Till now only 25,000 acres of land was acquired. In some cases, environmental clearances were also awaited for use of forest lands.
After the High Court quashing the government’s 123 GO, the government had halted all its land acquisition moves. In the recent winter session of the Assembly it has brought out a bill amending to the 2013 Land Acquisition Act. This was sent to President’s assent. However, Congress members urged the President questioning that how can a state assembly bring amendment to a central legislation, other than to improve its benefits.
The projects halted due to land acquisition problems include Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme, Dindi, Kaleshwaram, Tummidihatti, Medigadda and Chanaka Korata. They require huge lands for digging canals and laying pipelines. The engineers and in-charges of all the projects were asked to stop the works until the land acquisition issue was resolved.
Though earlier it was planned to complete all major projects by the end of 2018, now it seems to be more delay is inevitable as land acquisition was the main hurdle before the government.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to complete the works of 36 ongoing projects, for which there was no need for land acquisition. The projects include 16 major projects like SRSP stage- 2, Sripadasagar – Yellampalli, Kaleshwaram lift project, Indiramma Sagar, Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, Bheema and Koil Sagar would be completed by this year-end .
The medium irrigation projects Kinnerasani, Palem, Odikuntavagu, Gollavagu, Ralivagu, Komarambheem project and Gaddenna- Suddavagu projects and modernisation projects – Nizam Sagar and Nagarjuna Sagar would also be completed in a time bound manner.
