Congress opposes TS-Maha pact on water sharing

Hyderabad: The Congress party has expressed its opposition to reducing the height of Thummidihatti barrage across Pranahita by 4 metres as part of an agreement between Telangana State and Maharashtra. It has also demanded white paper on escalation of cost of Pranahita-Chevella project from Rs 38,500 crore to Rs 80,000 crore.

It has described the day on which the agreement was inked as “black day” Speaking to media persons, the Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir described the agreement the State government entered into with Maharashtra as “an aberration” since the earlier government in undivided Andhra Pradesh had signed similar MoU with the neighbouring State in the presence of Union Minister.

The earlier agreement reached between former Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chouhan in the presence of the then Union Minister for Water Resources Pavan Kumar Bansal was built the barrage at the height of 152 metres. “What is there to celebrate, when the government has failed to add even a single acre to ayacut,” he said.

The earlier agreement inked on May 5, 2012 was aimed at maintaining water storage in the reservoir at 160 tmcft. But now the water storage level would come down to 100 tmcft even though the estimated cost of the project would be doubled, Shabbir Ali said. The party would take up the issue in the upcoming Assembly session.

Former Irrigation Minister P Sudhershan Reddy regretted that the government had failed to complete most of the projects though the work on most of them was halfway through during the previous regime. TPCC chief spokesperson, Dasoju Sravan termed the agreement between Telangana State and Maharashtra as “old wine in new bottle.”