Hyderabad, Sept 3: Former minister Gade Venkat Reddy on Monday demanded that the State Government immediately release water for the farmers of Krishna Delta region.
Venkat Reddy also condemned the objections raised by some political leaders belonging to different parties, including the ruling Congress party, over release of water from Nagarjunasagar Dam to Krishna Delta. He said the demand for bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh should not be linked with the release of water to Delta region. He said the government should ensure that all regions do not face scarcity of water until the State is united. He said deficient rainfall has cause severe scarcity of irrigation water across the State and therefore, the existing resources should be judiciously shared by all regions in the State.
Referring to earlier GOs that limited the release of water from Nagarjunasagar Dam, he said those GOs were issued based on the conditions that prevailed on that point of time. Therefore, it was wrong to quote their relevance in the existing scenario, he said.
The former minister also demanded that the EPC tender system should be replaced with a more efficient system for awarding of contracts. He said the present system was leading to escalation of projects' costs. Citing an instance, he said that the cost of Pranahita-Chevella project which was originally estimated at Rs 27,000 crore, increase to Rs 38,000 crore and now its projected cost has increased to Rs 50,000 crore. He said the on-going project could never be completed if the EPC system remains under implementation.
- INN
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