Telangana Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy said on Saturday that Kaleshwaram project water will not be lifted at the Medigadda barrage until the structure is repaired, even as drought dries up fields across the state.

Speaking at a media briefing on Kaleshwaram at the Secretariat in Hyderabad, Reddy repeated the government’s position without hedging. The state will lift water only after Medigadda is fixed, he said, and there is no plan to do it sooner.

There is no question of lifting Kaleshwaram water at Medigadda. We will lift water only after the repairs are done. Until then, that thought does not exist.

Reddy also pointed to the National Dam Safety Authority, known as NDSA. According to the minister, the NDSA advised that water should not be stored at the site and that the gates of all three barrages should be kept open.

The minister said he was not hiding behind that advice alone. He claimed the state had already prepared designs for repairing the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages, all part of the Kaleshwaram project. He said the government had held discussions with a technical committee formed by the Union Jal Shakti Ministry.

The timeline he laid out is specific. Agencies that will carry out the work are to be mobilised by the end of November. Works are to begin by the end of December. The target is to finish the restoration before the 2027 monsoon season.

But the timing has drawn sharp questions. Reddy’s own account of the project has shifted over the past three years, and critics are asking how a structure once described as beyond repair is now being fixed.

Reddy used his briefing to take aim at the previous government. He said the Congress government had not focused on Kaleshwaram repairs in the nearly three years since it came to power, and he accused BRS of responsibility for the current drought. He also raised the Tummidihatti project and other schemes, arguing that old alternatives had been pushed aside.

The political charge runs both ways. During the election campaign, Congress repeatedly attacked the project, calling it a failure and pointing to about one lakh crore rupees it said had gone into the Godavari. The same project is now being cast as the answer to the drought, and that reversal is the sharpest point of criticism.

Farmers and ordinary residents are not parsing the political arguments. Reports from the ground describe rising anger at the government, with many saying the drought is a direct result of the government’s decisions. Crops are drying, and people are worried about drinking water in the months ahead.

Irrigation experts, as cited in the reporting, say water could still be lifted without first repairing the Medigadda pillars. They point to options such as building a cofferdam or a rubber dam. The government has not shown any sign of pursuing those alternatives, critics say.

The water picture makes the stakes even clearer. According to the report, about 758 TMC of water has already flowed downstream from Medigadda. Critics argue that this water is being let go to waste under the cover of the pillar damage, even though it could be lifted.

Andhra Pradesh angle: The same downstream flow has had a direct effect across the border. The report says that water has brought new life to Andhra Pradesh, where projects are full and irrigation water is flowing. In Telangana, farmers are watching dried crops and crying, while the water passes to the neighbouring state.

The government’s answer comes down to one commitment: repairs first, lifting after. Whether that commitment holds through the drought, and whether the December start date is met, will decide if farmers see Kaleshwaram water this season or only in the next monsoon. For now, the minister has ruled out the one option that could bring water to the fields sooner, and the people living with the drought are the ones left waiting.