Telangana’s water rights could be affected by proposed changes to the Godavari-Cauvery river-link project, former state minister T Harish Rao said at a media conference in Hyderabad, urging the Centre to withdraw the revised alignment and protect the state’s share of river water.
Rao, a leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, alleged that Andhra Pradesh’s proposal to route the project through Polavaram instead of the earlier Ichampally-Sammakka Sagar alignment would bypass Telangana and reduce the benefits originally envisaged for the state. His remarks were reported by the Times of India – Hyderabad.
According to Rao, the National Water Development Agency has scheduled discussions on the project at its November 3 meeting in New Delhi. He claimed that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu wrote to the Centre on October 7 seeking the Polavaram route.
Rao said the earlier alignment through Ichampally and Nagarjuna Sagar was intended to support irrigation across more than 2.3 lakh acres in the erstwhile Warangal, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy districts. He alleged that the proposed Polavaram-Bollapalli route would instead leave Telangana outside the project’s intended benefits.
The former minister claimed that the project proposes diverting 148 thousand million cubic feet of water, of which Telangana’s allocated share is 43 tmcft. He warned that the state’s entitlement could be compromised if the revised alignment is approved. The report does not include an official response from the Centre, the NWDA or the Andhra Pradesh government on these claims.
Rao said the change could affect Telangana’s irrigation, drinking-water and industrial-water supplies. He also demanded an all-party delegation to inspect major pump houses and assess the functioning of lift-irrigation schemes across the state.
The BRS leader separately accused the Telangana government of failing to use available water resources fully, citing the Devadula, Kalwakurthy and Kannepally lift-irrigation projects. He described the state’s current water scarcity as a result of inadequate planning and project operations, while criticising Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for not opposing Andhra Pradesh’s demands.
The immediate institutional milestone is the NWDA’s scheduled discussion on the Godavari-Cauvery link project on November 3. Any decision on the revised alignment, Telangana’s claimed share and the project’s implementation would determine whether the concerns raised by Rao translate into a formal inter-state water dispute.
