Bhagirath Of Telugu Areas

The state of AP, that was once acclaimed to be one of the major providers of food to the country, suffered due o drought. Farmers were agonised by crop loss and withering. Mounted debts added to the misery and prompted for suicide in many households. The sad stories heard during Maha Prasthanam Pada yatra moved YSR. He owed to prevent river water from joining the salt waters of the oceans simply. He decided to make sure every acre in the state received irrigation water. 

As he thought with commitment about the farmers of the Telugu-speaking areas and their problems, YSR worked with the aim of providing irrigation water to every acre of cultivation land and a house for every family. Thus, he was acclaimed by many as 'Bhagirath' of AP. As soon as he came to power, he took up 80 projects with Rs.1,33,730 crore expenditure as promised, in order to provide water to 97.69 lakh acres.

Until 2004, there was no CM who had given such high importance to irrigation sector. Especially, Chandrababu Naidu, who had ruled for 9 years prior to YSR had seriously neglected the field. Giving it prominence soon after entering into power, YSR allocated majority of funds to the projects. He tried to finish the projects at a great pace in order to efficiently utilise the funds.

Taking up 'Jala Yagnyam' programme, he was acclaimed as Bhagirath by working efficiently on irrigation water projects. He divided the projects into categories, giving importance to those projects and schemes that were completed quickly and provided for majority of acres.

The projects that were completed in YSR's tenure	The district that benefited from the project
Bhupatipalem reservoir	East Godavari
Chagalnadu	East Godavari
Peddagadda reservoir	Vizianagaram
Surampalem reservoir	East Godavari
Madduvalasa	Srikakulam
Pedderu reservoir	Visakhapatnam
Kovvada Kalva	West Godavari
Ramatheertham reservoir	Prakasam
Swarnamukhi barrage	Nellore
Veligallu	Kadapa
Alisagar	Nizamabad
Gutpa	Nizamabad
Suddavagu	Adilabad
Nettempadu lift irrigation	Mehboobnagar
Beema lift irrigation	Mehboobnagar
Koyilsagar lift irrigation	Mehboobnagar
The projects that were partially completed in YSR's tenure and provided water	The district that benefited from the project
Vamsadhara	Srikakulam
Janjhaavathi	Vizianagaram
Thotapalli	Vizianagaram, Srikakulam
Pushkaram	East Godavari
Thadipudi	West Godavari
Venkatanagaram	East Godavari
Musurumilli	East Godavari
Gundlakamma	Prakasam
Somasila	Nellore, Prakasam
Telugu Ganga	Kurnool, Kadapa, Chittoor
Guru Raghavendra	Kurnool
SRBC	Kurnool, Kadapa
Pulichintala	Guntur, Krishna, West Godavari
Mailavaram	Kadapa
AMRP	Nallagonda
SRSP 2	Warangal, Khammam, Nallagonda
Matthadivagu	Adilabad
Devadula	Warangal
Gollavagu	Adilabad
Ralivagu	Adilabad
Kinnerasani	Khammam
Kalvakurthi lift irrigation	Mehboobnagar
Ellampalli	Karimnagar
Madhyamaneru	Karimnagar

In the 9-year rule of Chandrababu, he spent just Rs.13 crore on Handri-Neeva. After YSR came to power, he allotted Rs.6800 crore for the project. Chandrababu hardly showed any interest on Galeru-Nagari, another project in Rayalaseema. He spent Rs.17 crore on it in the 9 years. During the tenures of YSR and his successors, Rs.4600 crore was spent on it. Still the project has a lot of pending work. In 1996, Babu performed groundbreaking for Veligonda project. but after elections, he left it alone. He spent only Rs.13 crore on it, meaning he did not even spend Rs.2 crore per year. YSR, on the other hand, spent Rs.3000 crore on it.

Now, Chandrababu's Government is trying to ignore Polavaram project that is actually highly beneficial. Under the mask of Pattiseema lift irrigation scheme, the Government is hindering many districts from being benefited by Polavaram. Polavaram will enable storage of almost 200 TMC of Godavari waters, from which 80 TMC can be diverted to Krishna Delta and water from Srisailam and Nagarjna Sagar projects can be released to Handri-Neeva, Galeru-Nagari, thereby benefiting crops in Rayalaseema.

YSR brought to good shape many small, medium and large scale projects lift irrigation schemes, lakes and reservoirs.