4 months ago
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A azygous connection by Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy successful the State Assembly has ignited a large governmental contention successful Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Reddy’s assertion that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu halted the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) astatine his petition has transformed what was primitively a method and biology task into a potent awesome of alleged governmental capitulation, determination betrayal, and inter-State manoeuvring implicit Krishna stream waters. Former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has seized upon the reported remark to onslaught Mr. Naidu, accusing him of “selling retired Rayalaseema” for vested interests.
From Telangana’s perspective, the connection burnishes Mr. Revanth Reddy’s representation arsenic a person susceptible of protecting his State’s h2o interests. From Andhra Pradesh’s vantage point, however, it has reopened an aged wound, reinforcing a long-standing fearfulness that Rayalaseema remains a negotiable terrain successful inter-State politics.
This contention cannot beryllium dismissed arsenic a specified governmental escalation of what was different a method disagreement implicit biology clearances, statutory norms, oregon tribunal procedures. At its halfway lies a deliberate soundlessness by the governmental leaderships of some Andhra Pradesh and Telangana connected binding ineligible constraints they find inconvenient. What is present framed arsenic governmental rhetoric risks overshadowing the existent and persistent contented of h2o scarcity successful Rayalaseema.
Crucially, some governments person chosen to support nether the carpet Government Order No. 69, issued during the undivided Andhra Pradesh regime, arsenic good arsenic the explicit provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. The Act leaves nary country for selective memory: each Government Orders issued by successive governments of the combined State are binding connected some Telangana and the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh.
GO 69 intelligibly restricts h2o drawal beneath the minimum gully down level (MDDL) of the Srisailam reservoir exclusively for drinking h2o purposes. Despite this, some States person pursued ambitious assistance irrigation projects — RLIS successful Andhra Pradesh and the Palamuru–Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) successful Telangana — pushing against these ineligible constraints portion publically accusing each different of impropriety. By design, some projects interruption the provisions of GO 69 and the Reorganisation Act, revealing a shared signifier of selective compliance that erodes inter-State spot and governmental accountability.
The PRLIS successful Telangana lifts h2o astatine astir the 800-foot level of the Srisailam reservoir to payment drought-prone districts specified arsenic Mahabubnagar and Rangareddy, portion the RLIS proposes drawal astatine astir the 840-foot level. At the bosom of the quality lies a cardinal question: who lifts however overmuch water, from where, and nether what ineligible sanction?
The RLIS, conceived successful 2020 astatine a projected outgo of ₹3,825 crore, was designed to guarantee drinking h2o proviso for Rayalaseema and supplement irrigation for astir 9.6 lakh acres done existing systems specified arsenic the Telugu Ganga Project (TGP), Srisailam Right Branch Canal (SRBC), and Galeru–Nagari Sujala Sravanthi (GNSS). The strategy envisaged lifting h2o from the Srisailam reservoir foreshore erstwhile levels autumn beneath positive 854 feet.
Despite its ambitious objectives, the task precocious astatine breakneck velocity without securing mandatory biology clearances— a gamble exposed successful July 2021 erstwhile the National Green Tribunal halted construction. By then, ₹883 crore had already been spent, mostly done loans from agencies specified arsenic the Rural Electrification Corporation, generating involvement liabilities without delivering tangible benefits.
Official records of the Andhra Pradesh authorities contradict claims that the RLIS has been abandoned. Government Order No. 44, issued successful July 2025, lists each pending irrigation projects successful the State, detailing their fiscal and carnal progress. While the bid acknowledges delays, backing constraints, and prioritisation challenges, it does not bespeak that the RLIS has been shelved. GO 44 frankincense sharpens the dilemma: if the task is viable and legally permissible, it indispensable beryllium regularised and completed; if not, a wide and transparent nationalist determination is warranted. The contiguous “halfway house” attack — allowing the task to languish without solution — neither addresses h2o scarcity nor ensures fiscal accountability.
Critics reason that the RLIS offers small oregon nary payment to Kurnool and Anantapur, the astir drought-hit districts of Rayalaseema, arsenic determination is minimal likelihood of h2o reaching these areas. They contend that the task chiefly benefits Nellore territory and, to a constricted extent, Chittoor district.
The RLIS lawsuit presents 2 defensible argumentation choices. The archetypal is for the Andhra Pradesh authorities to unafraid each statutory, environmental, and inter-State clearances and implicit the project. This would safeguard the important concern already made done interest-bearing loans, forestall discarded of nationalist funds, and present tangible benefits to farmers and residents.
The 2nd enactment is to prioritise the completion of long-pending, legally sanctioned irrigation projects successful Rayalaseema. Several specified projects—initiated decades agone nether the TGP (1983–84), SRBC (1981), and GNSS (1989–90)—already person statutory approvals, conform to basin norms, and necessitate acold little incremental concern than ample assistance schemes. Prioritising these assured projects would easiness h2o accent without triggering caller inter-State disputes oregon ineligible complications. These works are person to completion, little contentious, and susceptible of importantly improving drought resilience.
What is politically and administratively untenable is the continuation of the contiguous ambiguity. Maintaining an expensive, debt-funded task successful regulatory limbo portion deferring completion of assured irrigation works imposes avoidable fiscal costs and prolongs h2o scarcity. Rayalaseema’s h2o situation is not simply hydrological; it is simply a manifestation of argumentation paralysis, governmental caution, and disregard for binding ineligible norms. Each time of hold deepens liabilities, erodes nationalist trust, and prolongs the suffering of drought-prone communities.
The RLIS occurrence underscores the dangers of subordinating law, regulatory compliance, and sustainable readying to governmental optics oregon engineering ambition. The prime earlier Andhra Pradesh is stark: either guarantee completion with legality and accountability oregon perpetuate a rhythm of delay, inefficiency, and governmental theatre. Rayalaseema’s h2o information volition yet beryllium not connected rhetoric, but connected argumentation clarity and administrative courage.
