Fill pumps, not press notes
Harish Rao says Telangana is running at 35.6% reservoir storage while India sits at 64.16%. His ask is simple: switch on Annaram and Sundilla, lift Godavari, fill our tanks. The Congress government says it’s repairing Kaleshwaram first. Repairs don’t irrigate fields — water does.
The debate over Kaleshwaram now turns on repairs, safety and when water will move.
BRS’s T. Harish Rao on Sunday accused the Congress government of sidelining the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme and demanded that the Annaram and Sundilla pumps be run immediately to lift Godavari water and fill Telangana’s reservoirs. He said farmers are being left dry for politics. According to reports of his remarks, he put Telangana’s reservoir storage at 35.6% versus a national 64.16% and called it a failure of water management, not nature.
The 64.16% national figure tallies with a Central Water Commission bulletin cited in multiple reports for August 20 — 117.773 BCM stored against 183.565 BCM live capacity. The 35.6% Telangana number is Harish Rao’s claim; the comparable CWC/state table for that week hasn’t been published here. Attribute it and keep the math clean: the denominator matters.
On record, the Congress government says Kaleshwaram isn’t being sidelined at all — it is being repaired. In April, it ordered repairs to all three barrages and a study of the full 1.6-km Medigadda stretch with CWPRS and CWC involvement, targeting completion by December. In July, the Chief Minister said the project will certainly be used if it is technically safe, and warned against filling barrages before experts clear them.
Good. Fix what needs fixing. But when storage across India is at 64% and Telangana is being told to wait, the Congress government has to do more than wave a repair file. Publish pump logs, reservoir inflow–outflow, and the operating plan for Annaram and Sundilla so farmers know when water moves. If safety bars lifting at Medigadda, say what can be lifted upstream and when. Silence reads as evasion when fields are at stake, and the Congress in Hyderabad has perfected the mime act.