No headway in Bhairavanitippa Project works in Anantapur

Anantapur: Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is under severe criticism for failing on his promise to complete Rs 969 crore Bhairavanitippa Project, which was designed to irrigate 22,300 acres in Rayadurgam and Kalyandurgam constituencies. These projects were initiated by the TDP government but the YSRCP government promised to complete them.

The CM during his visit to Rayadurgam in 2021 promised to complete the Bhairavanitippa project in 6 months but not the project did not make any headway. Already 500 acres was acquired by the TDP government but another 900 acres need to be acquired.

The chief minister last year instructed officials to complete land acquisition in 60 days. He during his padayatra had promised to complete the project after coming to power but promise was not kept even 3 years after coming to power. It was expected to complete the Bhairavanitippa project by the end of 2020. The people of Kalyandurgam, Rayadurgam and Raptadu constituencies pinned lot of hopes on the projects.

The farmers of the two constituencies are urging the government to allocate funds for the projects. The TDP government had decided to revive the 40-year-old Bhairavanitippa project over Vedavati river, which had become defunct due to several reasons. The original source of the project was Vedavati river in Karnataka. Due to Karnataka building too many projects on its side, the Bhairava project could not get any water. So as a permanent solution both the past and present governments, decided to bring Krishna river waters by building a lift irrigation at Jeedipalle reservoir.

The new Bhairavanitippa project is designed to divert Krishna water which come to Jeedipalle reservoir further to Garudapuram village in Gummagatta mandal and from there to Bhairavanitippa in Rayadurgam mandal. The people are expressing disappointment with the YSRCP government for totally sidelining irrigation projects which are linked to the future of agriculture and farmers community.