HYDERABAD: Accusing the BRS of playing “cheap politics” over the construction of the Navy’s very low frequency (VLF) radar communication station in the Damagundam Reserve Forest in Vikarabad district, Environment & Forests Minister Konda Surekha on Tuesday said that almost all the clearances for the project were sanctioned during the BRS regime.
Addressing the media, along with Navy officials and Parigi MLA Rammohan Reddy, she rejected the claims being made by the Opposition that the project will have an adverse impact on health and environment.
“The final sanction was issued in 2017 but the BRS government didn’t issue the GO as they were trying to get the Bison Polo Ground from the Centre. KCR thought that he would sanction the land only if Centre gives Bison Polo Ground over his superstitious belief of constructing the Secretariat at a new place,” she said.
Surekha also said that it is a matter of pride to have a radar station linked to national security in the state. Expressing dismay at the BRS making it a political issue, she said that she would arrange a bus to travel to Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu where the first such radar station was built to study the socioeconomic and health conditions.
She also said that establishment of the Navy’s radar station will be beneficial for the residents of Vikarabad and other neighbouring districts as more facilities, including a Kendriya Vidyalaya and hospitals, will come up in the area.