Centre grants forest clearance for Palamuru irrigation project

 The Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation project has been granted the forest clearance from the Centre on Thursday to acquire 500 acres in Mahbubnagar district.

Earlier, the project works were restricted to meet the drinking water needs of locals which caused a setback to the progress but the latest approval will pave the way for the irrigation works to be taken up for the first phase of the project. 

Irrigation Minister Harish Rao thanked the Union minister Harshavardhan for granting the clearance.

The project was designed to provide irrigation facility to 7 lakh acres in Mahbubnagar, 5 lakh acres in Rangareddy district and 30,000 acres in Nalgonda district. It was redesigned by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to lift 1.5 tmc feet of water from Srisailam foreshore for about 90 days in a year. The farmers objected this move and approached the courts and the National Green Tribunal securing orders restricting the project to meet only the drinking water needs of people and not go ahead with the irrigation aspects. 

Harish Rao said that the project got delayed due to the court cases but the latest clearance from the Union forest ministry is a befitting lesson for the Congress which is trying to stall the project.

The Minister further said that the state government had already issued Rs 35,200 crore administrative permission to the project and plans to complete the first phase by 2018.