KTR urges PM to declare Kaleshwaram or Palamuru national project

Hyderabad, Dec 3:  Telangana has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant national project status to either Kaleshwaram or Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation project.

Industry and Information Technology Minister K.T. Rama Rao has urged the Prime Minister to direct the high-powered steering committee to consider Telangana projects for the national status at its meeting on December 6.

Rama Rao, who is also the Working President of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), made the appeal through a tweet on Friday, tagging the Prime Minister.

He recalled that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao appealed several times to grant national project status to either Kaleshwaram project or Palamuru lift irrigation project.

"While Polavaram in AP & Upper Bhadra in Karnataka are being recognised as national projects, kindly ensure that the world's largest multi-stage lift irrigation project Kaleshwaram or Palamuru project are considered with equal importance," wrote KTR, as the minister is popularly known.

"Request you Sir to direct the high powered steering committee to take up Telangana projects on 6th Dec," he added

KTR posted with his tweets two media reports. One of the reports is about Karnataka Chief Minister Basvaraj Bommai's meeting with Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Thursday. Bommai later claimed that Shekhawat responded positively to the request to declare Upper Bhadra project as a national project.

The Telangana government had requested the Centre on many occasions to grant national project status to Kaleshwaram or Palamuru. The Chief Minister had also raised the issue with the Prime Minister.

The Centre had announced that no irrigation project in the country would get national project status in future but its reported recent decision to grant the status to Polavaram and Upper Bhadra has upset the Telangana government.