The IT and panchayat raj minister K.T. Rama Rao on Tuesday visited the intake well at Ellur near Kollapur in Mahbubnagar district to give a push to the Rs 25,000 crore mega Telangana water grid project.
The intake well at Ellur will be the grid’s take off point to provide Krishna drinking water to the three districts of Mahbubnagar, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda district part of 26 grids –by 2018/2019.
Mr Rao will visit Warangal on Wednesday and Khammam the next day. Mr Rama Rao scoffed fears expressed by BJP leader Dr Nagam Janardhan Reddy and others that the supply of drinking water to three districts from Mahbubnagar would affect irrigation needs of the district.
“This is not true. The allegations are wrong. In previous government orders, 10 per cent of water from irrigation sources have been earmarked for drinking water needs of the people. In fact, drinking water is always top priority compared to other needs,” he said.
Mr Rao visited the Ellur reservoir and inspected it along with ministers from the district Juppally Krishna Rao, Laxma Reddy, parliamentary secretary Srinivas Goud.
“We will invite tenders for four grids by month end and works will be grounded in February. As per CM’s vision and Siddipet experiment, we will ensure drinking water to every home. About 13 TMC of water will be lifted from Ellur reservoir,” he added.
To a question, he said the government is striving hard to use minimum power for the water grid and focusing more on ensuring supplies through gravity as far as possible.
Earlier, Mr Rao handed over 74 new police vehicles to each of the 74 police stations in the district at Mahbubnagar, underlining the need for friendly policing and instilling confidence in people towards police.
“You know better what the image of police and politician is. We are striving to ensure a positive image of the police, a people-friendly police and not the image one has about them.
I wish the state police is No. 1 in the country and we are striving to provide the required men and material,” he added.
