HYDERABADTelangana Jagruthi president and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K. Kavitha has demanded that the State government pay a compensation of at least ₹35 lakh per acre to farmers being displaced by the Kodangal-Narayanpet Lift Irrigation Scheme, as the authorities were offering only ₹14 lakh per acre as against the ₹20 lakh promised by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.In a meeting with the farmers, who are being displaced by the new irrigation scheme at Kanukurthy village in Kodangal constituency on Thursday, she alleged that the Chief Minister had kept the Karivena package of the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme, whose head works were 95% completed by the BRS Government, in cold storage, though it had planned to irrigate 1.8 lakh acres in Kodangal and Narayanpet constituencies.“The new lift irrigation scheme taken up at the behest of Mr. Revanth Reddy reduced the irrigation potential to just 1 lakh acres. Instead of drawing water from the Jurala project for the new scheme, government is planning to draw water from the Bhoothpur link of the Bhima Lift Irrigation Scheme, restricting the availability of BLIS water to the Makthal area,” she said.She alleged that the government had escalated the Kogandal-Narayanpet LIS cost to ₹4,500 crore from ₹2,900 crore mentioned in the GO issued for the purpose without even taking up the work. She sought to know whether the increase in cost by ₹1,600 crore was meant for kickbacks. She also faulted the government for giving mobilisation advance of ₹600 crore each to the two successful bidders for the work without even doing a spadeful of work.She asked the government to give a job to one member of each family being displaced by the project and construct a housing colony for them.Published - July 31, 2025 08:56 pm IST