HYDERABAD: Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has asserted that the Sita Rama Lift Irrigation Project (SRLIP), which is scheduled to be inaugurated by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on August 15, will be completed by 2026.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Reddy dismissed claims by former minister T. Harish Rao that the BRS government had finished the project and that the Congress was seeking credit for it. Reddy criticized the BRS for its substantial expenditures on the project without bringing it to completion.
He stated, “The BRS spent Rs 1.81 lakh crore on the irrigation sector but failed to provide water to new ayacut areas. Not a single new ayacut has received water under the BRS government.”
Reddy claimed that the Congress had conceptualized the Rajiv Sagar and Indira Sagar projects with an estimated cost of Rs 3,500 crore, investing Rs 2,000 crore into them. He accused the BRS government of inflating the cost of the Sita Rama project to Rs 18,000 crore under the guise of re-engineering, while only completing 39 percent of the work.
Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy challenged Harish Rao’s assertion, questioning how the BRS could claim to have completed 90 percent of the project with only Rs 7,230 crore spent out of a total estimated cost of Rs 18,231 crore.