Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has accused the Opposition parties of carrying out a venomous campaign against the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) by hiding facts on the change of source for water withdrawal for the project from Jurala, as planned earlier, to Srisailam.
Justifying the decision to shift the source of water withdrawal from Jurala to Srisailam the Minister said Bhima, Nettempadu and Koilsagar projects as also the ayacut of Jurala itself, a total of 5.5 lakh acres, was depending on water drawn from Jurala having the live storage capacity of only 6 tmcft. On the other hand, the storage capacity of Srisailam was 216 tmcft and that was the reason why the take-off point of PRLIS was shifted.
After the source of withdrawal the Opposition parties started filing petitions that there would be environmental damage with PRLIS stating that project works would pass through forest areas, filed complaints with the National Green Tribunal, provoked farmers to oppose the project and even went to the extent of filing cases in the name of farmers without their knowledge and consent, he alleged.
