Hyderabad: Senior BRS leader T Harish Rao demanded the state govt immediately operate the Devadula pump house motors at full capacity and take measures to supply water to at least 3.5 lakh acres to protect farmers. He accused the Congress govt of deliberately stopping the lifting of water from the Devadula project, causing severe hardship to farmers in the Warangal district despite sufficient water flow in the Godavari river.After inspecting the Devannapeta pump house, part of the Devadula lift irrigation project, on Friday, the former irrigation minister said that all three motors at the pump house were shut even though adequate water was available in the river. He said that nearly 16,000 cusecs of water was flowing near Sammakka Sagar barrage, but the govt failed to lift water for irrigation.He recalled that on March 18, 2025, irrigation minister Uttam Kumar Reddy had announced that the motors would be switched on, but left the site without ensuring that the pumps actually started functioning. Due to the non-operation of the pumps last year, crops in nearly 60,000 acres dried up, he claimed. For the past 10 days, water lifting has again stopped, affecting irrigation in Jangaon, Palakurthi and Station Ghanpur constituencies. He also stated that the Gandiramaram lift stopped due to a lack of water.Harish said officials were citing ‘repairs’ and ‘software issues’ as excuses, but alleged that the real issue was gross negligence by the govt. He pointed out that the third phase of the Devadula project, including the 49.5 km tunnel from Ramappa to Unikicherla, described as one of the longest tunnels in the world, was completed under the BRS govt. The Devannapeta pump house, built at a depth of 155 metres, is among the deepest in the world. The BRS govt spent around Rs 7,300 crore on the Devadula project and completed more than 80% of the works, expanding irrigation coverage from about 47,000 acres to over 3.17 lakh acres, he said.He alleged that in the last two years, the Congress govt had not added even one acre of new ayacut and had failed to operate the existing motors. Maintenance funds of about Rs 8 crore were not released to contractors last year, resulting in pumps remaining idle and leading to crop losses estimated at Rs 700–800 crore. He said the funds were released only after BRS protests, but by then farmers had already suffered heavy losses. Despite promises made in May 2024 that the project would be completed by March 2026, no meaningful progress had been made, he added.
