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TDP govt disowns NTR’s pet scheme
Due to apathy of the state government, the dream of TDP founder and former Chief Minister N T Rama Rao to provide drinking and irrigation water to eight upland mandals consisting of 56 villages in Krishna district was not materialised even after three decades.
Amaravati: Due to apathy of the state government, the dream of TDP founder and former Chief Minister N T Rama Rao to provide drinking and irrigation water to eight upland mandals consisting of 56 villages in Krishna district was not materialised even after three decades. The TDP government did not evince interest on the scheme during its nine years tenure and after coming into power. It may be recalled that the then Chief Minister NT Rama Rao had laid the foundation stone for the Tarakarama Lift Irrigation scheme on February 20, 1988 at Vidyanagaram on National highway-221.
Highlights:
- The then government has designed the project to provide drinking and irrigation water to 56,000 acres in 64 villages belonging to eight mandals in Krishna district
- Due to apathy of previous and present governments, the scheme, which is aimed at providing irrigation water to thousands of acres of land has become a failure, according to PV Anjaneyulu, district president of Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham
The scheme was launched at an estimate of Rs 55.82 crore out of which Rs 19 crore was the contribution of farmers who contributed Rs 3,000 per acre.The then government has designed the project to provide drinking and irrigation water to 56,000 acres in 64 villages belonging to eight mandals. A reservoir was also constructed at Brahmalingaiah cheruvu in Gannavaram mandal. After the launch of Polavaram project, the ayacut of Tarakarama Lift Irrigation scheme was reduced to 13,820 acres. Even after reducing the ayacut area, the water supply was not maintained properly.
As per the design of the scheme, the first pump house was located behind VTPS, Ibrahimpatnam, has to lift the return water from VTPS and supply the irrigated water through right and laeft canals. The government has constructed four pump houses to lift water from right canal where the water should be supplied through left canal to 9,000 acres for irrigation purpose. Water could not be lifted due to failure of motor pumps in two of the four pump houses and two other pumps were being under repair though there is abundant water available in the left canal.
According to PV Anjaneyulu, district president of Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham following the negligent attitude of the previous and present governments, the scheme, which was aimed at providing irrigation water to thousands of acres of land became a failure. The villages like Pinapaka, Narasigudem,G Kondur, Athkuru, H Muthyalampadu, Gaddamadugu will become fertile if the scheme is properly implemented, he said. “If all the motors work properly one tmc feet of water can be filled in Pondugula Cheruvu, Chandragudem Cheruvu and Morusumalli Cheruvu each and more than 10,000 acres can be cultivated through this water.
At present only the left canal is existing and the government has already disbanded the right canal for the sake of Polavaram project. The government did not allocate funds in the budget for the Tarakarama Lift Scheme. If the government didn`t focus on Tarakarama Lift Scheme, several upland areas in Krishna district will turn into desert as the people are already reeling under severe drought. Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheshwara Rao, who represents Mylavaram constituency, should give priority to this lift scheme instead of Chintalapudi lift irrigation project,” he demanded.
By T Sudhakar
