Rayalaseema Outfit Demand Immediate Halt To Ongoing Construction Of Karnataka's Rs 21,450 Crore Upper Bhadra Lift Irrigation Project

Rayalaseema Kartavya Deeksha, an outfit that claims to fight for safeguarding the rights and interests of Kurnool, Anantapur, Kadapa and Chittoor areas of Andhra, has demanded an immediate halt to the ongoing construction of the Upper Bhadra Lift Irrigation Project in Karnataka.

The Rs 21,540 crores Upper Bhadra Lift Irrigation Project will lift 29.90 tmcft of water from Tunga and Bhadra to irrigate central Karnataka areas. It was given national project status recently by the union government.

In the Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an additional grant of Rs 5,300 crore for the Upper Bhadra irrigation project.

The ambitious project, executed under the aegis of Visvesvaraya Jala Nigam Ltd by the BJP government, aims to irrigate 2.25 lakh hectares using 29.9 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water from Tunga and Bhadra rivers, the right bank tributaries of Krishna river.

The project envisages utilising the water from these rivers for micro-irrigation in the drought-prone areas of central Karnataka, namely, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Davanagere, and Tumakuru.

The leaders and activists of the Rayalaseema Kartavya Deeksha alleged that the project has created a sense of deprivation among the people of Kurnool and Anantapur districts and will deprive them of their rightful share of allocated water from the Tungabhadra Dam.

On Monday (April 24), Rayalaseema Kartavya Deeksha organised a public meeting at STBC College Ground in Kurnool. Thousands of activists from all the region's districts participated in the rally.

Addressing the gathering, J.C. Diwakar Reddy, a former TDP MP, called for merging Kurnool and Anantapur districts with Telangana so that the irrigation water needs of the region are taken care of as the water resources of Telangana, and these districts are inter-linked.

Diwakar Reddy claimed that the Rayalaseema region would only develop if included in Telangana state.

Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy, former TDP MP and founder of Rayalaseema Parirakshana Samithi, an outfit that advocates separate statehood for the Rayalaseema region of Andhra, called for an immediate halt on the construction of the Upper Bhadra project in Karnataka and instead urged the construction of barrage-cum-bridge at Siddeswaram.

"If Upper Bhadra project is complete in Karnataka, the Rayalaseema region will not get even a single drop of surplus water." Rajasekhar Reddy added.

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee working president Tualsi Reddy demanded that the union and state government construct the Siddeswaram dam instead of a cable-stayed bridge and initiate steps to check the silt in Srisilam dam and enable storage of 70 tmcft.

According to the activists of Rayalaseema Kartavya Deeksha, Anantapur Municipal Corporation and 160 nearby villages in the undivided Anantapur district get their drinking water from Tungabhadra Dam through the Tungabhadra High-Level Main Canal, in addition to the irrigation needs of Kurnool, Anantapur and Kadapa districts and the Upper Bhadra project will adversely affect this arrangement.

The proposed lifting of 29.90 tmcft of water from Bhadra to a tunnel near Ajjampura, in the Tungabhadra sub-basin of Krishna basin, will affect the Rayalseema region very severely, they claim.