Karimnagar, Sept.11 : Former Choppadandi MLA Sunke Ravishankar, along with local farmers, staged a protest at the Ryalapalli link canal in Gangadhara mandal, accusing the Congress government of neglecting the Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) Rejuvenation Scheme. Addressing the gathering, the BRS leader demanded that the state government immediately lift water through the Kannepalli and Gayatri pump houses to protect standing crops in the canal catchment areas.
Ravishankar asserted that despite the technical feasibility of lifting water from the Kannepalli pump house independently of the Medigadda barrage, the government has shown absolute apathy toward the farming community. He explained that the previous BRS administration under former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao constructed the 3-km link canal at a cost of ₹30 crore with a capacity of 3,006 cusecs. The canal links the Flood Canal at the 88.400-km mark to the Kakatiya Main Canal at the 97.460-km mark, equipped with two sluice gates at Ryalapalli to facilitate bidirectional water flow and reduce reliance on SRSP headworks.
The former legislator pointed out that during KCR’s tenure, this inter-canal link successfully ensured tail-end water supply across the Choppadandi, Dharmapuri, Karimnagar, Peddapalli, and Manthani assembly constituencies. Expressing concern over the current administration’s failure to operate the lift irrigation system, Ravishankar warned that the BRS, alongside local farmers, would launch a large-scale agitation across the region if the government fails to immediately release water into the Kakatiya Canal.
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