Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is scheduled to inaugurate the Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Scheme on Saturday by switching on a “Bahubali” pump house to lift water from the Krishna river.

The chief minister said that the lift scheme, which has been built with giant pumps, would meet the drinking water needs of the people and help the farmers of south Telangana.

Celebrations will be organised in every village in old Mahbubnagar and Rangareddy districts the day after the inauguration of the lift scheme. Special pujas will be performed and the feet of deities in temples in every village will be washed with Krishna water, a media statement issued on Thursday said.

Chief minister Rao held a high-level meeting at the Dr. BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat on Wednesday and reviewed the progress of Palamuru Rangareddy lift scheme. Engineers informed Rao that dry runs had already been completed, and the project was ready. Taking into consideration the suggestions of the engineers, Rao will start the wet run of the lift scheme on September 17.

The Krishna water will be pumped to the nearby Narlapur reservoir. Irrigation department officials said the “Bahubali” pumps of 145MW each are not used anywhere else in the world. The weight of the bolt of the pumps is around 12kg. Around 34 pumps weighing 240 tonnes are being used for these lifts.

As soon as the motors are switched on, the chief minister will reach the Narlapur reservoir and perform special pujas to the river Krishna.

The chief minister said that the government would organise a public meeting on the occasion of the inauguration of the project.

Rao said: “River Krishna is flowing from Telangana. Due to the negligence of the rulers in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, people in old Palamuru and Rangareddy districts experienced many hardships and sufferings for decades without access to drinking water. The AP rulers would start the project and stop the works at the very beginning in the Krishna basin.

“It was a sad phase for Palaumuru that porridge centres were opened to address hunger problems. Migration for livelihoods was a regular problem. Palamuru was full of Mumbai-bound buses for migrant labourers. Old Rangareddy district also struggled for drinking water,” Rao said, recalling the songs written by Goreti Venkanna about the sufferings of the people of Palamuru district.

“People who migrated for livelihood will not return until they die. Farmers who owned 60 acres also struggled for livelihoods. A heart-rending situation prevailed in the drought-hit Palamuru. Rangareddy district is blessed with fertile lands but no irrigation facility was provided by the previous rulers,” Rao said.

The chief minister said the new government focused on developing the lift schemes and completed swiftly several projects started by the previous rulers in the Palamuru area. “Today, Palamuru is flourishing with green crops. Migration has stopped,” Rao said, adding that reverse migration to Palamuru from other states has started.

“The Palamuru Rangareddy lift scheme will change the direction of southern Telangana and it is now completed,” he added.

The chief minister said that some forces created many hurdles. “It is unfortunate that political leaders filed hundreds of cases against the Palamuru lift scheme. Politics should be towards changing people’s lives qualitatively. It should not be towards sacrificing people’s lives for their own selfishness. The same happened in the case of Palamuru Ranga Reddy’s uplift,” Rao said.