The Rayalaseema Saguneeti Sadhana Samithi, which is spearheading a movement for the construction of a weir on the Krishna River at Siddeswaram upstream Srisailam multipurpose project, has asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to fulfil its promise of providing drinking and irrigation water to the Rayalaseema region by supporting the more than a decade-old proposal.
At a ‘Jaladeeksha’ campaign at Parnapalli, Samithi president Bojja Dasaradharami Reddy exhorted the farmers to take up the construction of the weir on their own, if the State and Centre did not come forward for the project. The RSSS will take out a rally to Siddeswara for the six consecutive year, demanding immediate construction of a weir-cum-road bridge.
Welcoming the support of Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan the project at his public meeting in Sirivella on Sunday, Mr. Dasaratharami Reddy urged BJP State president Somu Veerraju to impress upon the Centre to speed up the project.
“The feasibility report for the project was approved by the Central Water Commission in August 2011 and a Detailed Project Report (PDR) was prepared by a five-member committee comprising Engineers-in-Chief of the united Andhra Pradesh at an estimated cost of ₹300 crore,” Mr. Reddy pointed out.
The recent proposal to have an additional spillway on the Telangana side was nothing, but depriving the arid regions of Telangana and Rayalaseema of its due share on the Krishna water, he opined.
“The excess water flowing into the Krishna can be diverted to Rayalaseema and Telangana by the construction of a weir-cum-road bridge at Siddeswara, which will also reduce the silt reaching the main dam. The silt can be removed during lean flow days from the weir,” said Mr. Dasaratharami Reddy.
Safety of Srisailam dam
Srisailam project Superintendent Engineer S. Venkataramaiah, in a statement, said that Central Water Commissioner former Chairman A.B. Pandya and his team had assessed the safety of the dam and said that repair works on the plunge pool would be undertaken soon, while the regular repair and maintenance works were being taken up at a cost of ₹2.42 crore.
Mr. Dasaratharami Reddy, however, said that the plunge pool repair had been pending for the past 15 years and successive governments did not take any interest in it after the 2009 floods.
