Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao today launched Sripada Ellampally project stage-II at Rajanna Siricilla district.
Speaking on the occasion, Harish Rao said the project was aimed at irrigating 1.65 lakh acres. The project was neglected by the previous governments for six years. The TRS Government took up pending canal works of the project and completed it to become functional, he claimed. He also lashed out at the previous Congress government which was in power for 10 years did not complete a single project in Telangana region.
Though the previous regime launched works in both regions, it neglected Telangana region and completed the projects in Andhra region, he fumed. Under Jalayagnam scheme, the Congress government constructed Pothireddypadu, Gundlakamma, Pushkara and Tatipudi on a war-footing and neglected the projects in Telangana, he rebuked.
He attributed the speedy completion of Ellampally to the commitment of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. He also claimed that they conducted meetings for 20 times and able to build Rayapatnam bridge which helped to impound waters. The state government sanctioned Rs 25,000 crore budget for the irrigation projects. Besides Ellampally would irrigate 1.65 lakh acres, another 50,000 acres will be irrigated by Kathalapur project on completion. At the same time, the government was giving suitable compensation to the farmers and others, who gave their lands for the projects, he said. Harish also said compensation will be released in two weeks. (NSS)