Uttam Kumar Reddy Blames BRS for Mahabubnagar Irrigation Crisis

Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has held the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi government responsible for the irrigation crisis in the combined Mahabubnagar district, arguing that a decade of neglect left South Telangana exposed to adverse weather such as the current El Nino impact.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Minister described the protests being staged by BRS leaders over the water situation in the erstwhile district as an attempt to divert attention from their own record. He acknowledged that farmers were genuinely facing hardship and said the government was aware of their concerns.

The Minister said the shortage should be viewed honestly as the combined outcome of El Nino-induced scarcity and the irrigation policies followed by the previous dispensation. El Nino, he noted, weakened the monsoon, delayed rainfall and produced long dry spells, causing a sharp fall in inflows into Krishna basin reservoirs.

As on September 15, 2026, only about 120 tmc ft of live storage was available in the Krishna basin's major and medium irrigation projects, against a total live storage capacity of 361 tmc ft, including projects in the Godavari basin.

Mr. Reddy singled out the Palamuru–Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme as the most damaging decision of the earlier government. Against the original 2013 proposal to lift about 70 tmc ft of Krishna floodwater from Jurala to irrigate nearly 10 lakh acres across Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts, the source was shifted to the Srisailam reservoir, he said.

Using Jurala as the source, he explained, would have meant a lower pumping head and fewer, shorter lifts, reducing capital expenditure and recurring electricity costs. Reservoirs built around Jurala could have captured surplus floodwaters within Telangana and offered protection during deficient monsoon years, he added.

The Minister said the change was not merely a shift in the intake point: Telangana lost the chance to build a more economical, geographically secure and drought-resilient irrigation system for South Telangana. The BRS, he said, left behind expensive pumping infrastructure without completing the network needed to deliver water reliably to farmers.

He also accused the previous government of compromising the State's Krishna water interests by accepting an ad hoc division of only 299 tmc ft for Telangana against 512 tmc ft for Andhra Pradesh.

Reiterating his government's approach, the Minister said the present scarcity would be managed transparently, with the highest priority given to drinking water, project-wise information on water availability provided to farmers, and every available drop of water put to use.