MP Vinod Kumar wrote a leeter to Gadkari for national status

Union water resources minister Nitin Gadkari’s reply on according national project status to irrigation projects irked the TRS members during question hour in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.The minister informed  an MP from West Bengal, Md Saleem, that the Centre had no plans to accord national project status to irrigation projects. Irked by it, B Vinod Kumar of TRS immediately wrote a letter to Gadkari, urging him to grant national status to one irrigation project in Telangana.

“While answering a supplementary question from Saleem, you mentioned that the government had no plan to take up state irrigation projects as national projects any more. Although I tried my best to raise this issue in the House today itself, unfortunately I was not given a chance by the speaker due to paucity of time. The taking up of Polavaram project in AP as a national project may be justified on the grounds of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

The Centre should also look at the other state — Telangana — through the same Act with regard to irrigation projects. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and TRS MPs have been consistently requesting the government since 2014 to declare Kaleshwaram or Palamuru lift irrigation project as a national project.”

“Despite insufficient financial allocation from the Central government, TS is building irrigation projects on two rivers Krishna (Palamuru) and Godavari (Kaleshwaram). The Centre can take up at least one of them as a national project. Reconsider your statement made during the question hour today. Declare one irrigation project in TS as a national project,” Vinod Kumar told Gadkari in the letter.