CPI State secretary G. Eswaraiah has urged Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to allocate adequate funds for completion of the long-pending Chintalapudi Lift Irrigation Scheme and ensure fair compensation to the farmers and families displaced by land acquisition for the project.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister on Sunday, Mr. Eswaraiah said the irrigation scheme, designed to lift Godavari waters and provide irrigation and drinking water to the upland regions of the erstwhile West Godavari district and parts of Eluru and NTR districts, remained incomplete despite being launched nearly 17 years ago.

He recalled that the project had been initiated in 2008 during the tenure of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy with an estimated cost of ₹1,701 crore. After bifurcation of the State, the project was expanded in 2017 under the government led by Mr. Naidu to cover additional ayacut in the present-day NTR district.

The revised project envisages lifting 53.5 tmc ft of Godavari water to irrigate about 4.8 lakh acres and provide drinking water to several villages, with the cost revised to ₹4,909 crore, he said.

Mr. Eswaraiah expressed concern over declining groundwater levels in several mandals of Chintalapudi and Polavaram constituencies, forcing farmers to depend on deep borewells. He said delays in land acquisition remained a major hurdle, with farmers demanding compensation based on prevailing market values rather than outdated rates.

Stressing that the project would be a lifeline for the drought-prone upland areas, he appealed to the government to expedite land acquisition, provide just compensation to the affected families, and complete the scheme within the time-frame announced by Water Resources Minister Nimmala Ramanaidu.