There seems to be more to the proposals discussed at the meeting of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh chief ministers in working out joint irrigation schemes between the two states than what meets the eye.
While there is little doubt that the objective of the proposalsis to ensure water reaches every nook and corner of both the states for cultivation, drinking water purposes and for the industries, it is believed that there is also a major plan behind the move – the projects that are proposed on the river linkage are highly cost-intensive and needless to say, they have huge scope for massive swindling of money.
According to the plan, Godavari water will be diverted to Srisailam to make up for the less availability of water in Krishna river, which is causing hardships to Rayalaseema region in AP, Palamuru and United Nalgonda districts in Telangana.
The chief ministers asked the officials concerned to study and submit report to the government on how to divert water from Godavari.
It is learnt the proposals involved construction of a series of barrages between Prakasam barrage and Srisailam, so that water diverted from Godavari could be reverse pumped into Pulichintala, Nagarjunsagar and Srisailam.
Apparently, KCR got this idea from Kaleshwaram project which fetched huge monetary benefits to the ruling party through re-designing of the original project.
If the Godavari-Krishna linkage schemes work out, they would be money cows for both TRS and YSR Congress party in the next five years, say sources.
