White paper reflects dark policies of BRS

Hyderabad: The destructive irrigation policies adopted by the previous Government have put the state under great risk. The policies, which were wrong, had left the state in debts. The corruption during the previous regime has put a huge burden on the state, according to the white paper on Irrigation that was tabled in the Assembly on Saturday.

The white paper said the policies of the previous government have increased the loan repayment burden with just the interest in the next five years to the tune of Rs 77,369 crore. This would be more than the annual budgetary allocations for the irrigation sector. The total requirement of funds to complete the remaining projects is Rs 1,75,143 crore. It requires at least Rs 3.4 lakh per acre to provide irrigation facilities. The report found fault with the previous government for prioritising major irrigation projects and totally ignoring the small and medium projects. Not just that, the budgetary allocations for the Irrigation sector was reduced by 47 percent during the BRS regime.

The debt to fund ratio has increased from zero per cent in 2014 to 39 percent in 2023.

It further said that as on date 28,412 bills were pending clearance from the government. The cost of the total pending bills would be more than Rs 10,000 crore. The white paper said after the formation of Telangana (2014- 2023), 15.81 lakh acres of ayacut was created at the cost of Rs 1,81,067 crore in 10 years. The government spent Rs 11.45 lakh per acre.

The previous government before the formation of Telangana had spent Rs 1.29 lakh crore on Kaleshwaram, Palamuru Rangareddy and Sitarama lift irrigation schemes. As per the estimations, a total irrigation facility of 127.58 lakh acres will be created once the ongoing projects are completed.

It requires Rs 97,774 crore to complete all the remaining projects and create 53.98 lakh acres of additional ayacut. Referring to the Kaleshwaram project, the white paper said that the previous government focused only on the construction of barrages by spending Rs 98,370 crore and neglected providing irrigation facilities to the farmers.

The report also nailed the previous government for not taking up action to avail Telangana's share of water from River Krishna. Instead of stopping Andhra Pradesh from enhancing the Pothireddypadu head regulator capacity, it allowed them to construct the Rayalaseema Lift irrigation scheme and mortgaged the state interests.

Though many old projects suffered breaches due to poor management, the previous government did nothing. Gates of the Musi project were washed away and the Sarala Sagar project in Wanaparthy got breached. The report said this government would give priority to all medium and minor projects which provide greater irrigation facilities with less expenditure.