Fight for national project status for the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project

The manifesto promised to secure national project status for the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme, which would bring central funding support. The state government did pursue this, submitting the project's detailed report for techno-economic appraisal. However, the Union government has twice declined to grant national status, in March 2025 and again in response to a Lok Sabha question in February 2025, on the ground that the project's inter-state aspects concerning Krishna river waters are sub-judice before the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II, making a techno-economic appraisal currently infeasible. Because the state pursued the request but the outcome is blocked by a Centre-and-tribunal-controlled process rather than by state inaction, this is an outside-attribution pending verdict rather than a state failure. Budget: the state continues to fund the project itself; no separate central national-project funding has been secured.