HYDERABAD: Accusing the Congress government of failing to protect Telangana’s interests in river waters, BRS leader and former irrigation minister T Harish Rao on Sunday declared that the pink party was ready for another water struggle.
“Power is not important for us. The rights of the people are paramount for us,” he said.
Alleging that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy misled the State Legislative Assembly on Saturday by making several false statements on the irrigation sector, Harish Rao asked “whose tongue should be cut now?”.
He demanded that Revanth Reddy immediately go to Lok Bhavan and tender his resignation for “misleading the House with falsehoods”. “If I speak like this, he may instigate an attack on me, file a false case or if necessary, instigate a murder attempt. But I’m not scared. Some time back, I faced a stone attack in Khammam,” he said.
Making a detailed PowerPoint presentation titled “River Waters, Congress Betrayals” at Telangana Bhavan on Sunday to counter the government’s presentation made in the Assembly a day earlier, Harish Rao questioned whether it was the mindset of the present regime to hand over the entire Srisailam project to Andhra Pradesh by fixing Jurala as the source for Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS). He recalled that there was no water in the Jurala project this year and that the government had declared a crop holiday.
Harish Rao said that no one should question why the source of the PRLIS was changed from Jurala to Srisailam. Drawing water from Jurala was the concept of the combined Andhra Pradesh government and Revanth Reddy was now continuing the same approach, he alleged.
The BRS leader said that the Tungabhadra river would join Krishna river downstream of Jurala, which was why the BRS government had fixed Srisailam as the source for PRLIS. He asked if the Congress government wanted to divert Tungabhadra water to Andhra Pradesh. The former minister added that the decision to fix Srisailam as the source was taken based on suggestions from irrigation experts, including R Vidyasagar Rao.
'Kodangal project aimed at taking commissions'
Finding fault with the Revanth Reddy government for taking up the Kodangal Lift Irrigation Scheme, Harish Rao alleged that it was proposed solely to “earn commissions”.
He claimed that if a canal had been dug under PRLIS, nearly one lakh acres could have been irrigated in Kodangal, but under the Kodangal Lift Irrigation Scheme, only 30,000 acres of ayacut was proposed. He accused Revanth Reddy of betraying even the people of Kodangal, who had elected him.
On the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel project, Harish Rao said that the BRS government had excavated 11.48 km of the tunnel between 2014 and 2023, whereas the Congress government had managed to dig only 18 metres in two years.
He recalled that during the two-year Congress rule, the Peddavagu project was washed away, the Vattem pump house was submerged and the SLBC tunnel collapsed.
Harish Rao demanded that Revanth Reddy tender an apology to the people for making another false claim that the Andhra Pradesh government stopped the construction of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme only after his intervention. He said the Andhra Pradesh clarified on Sunday that the works were halted during the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government after the Telangana government approached the National Green Tribunal.
Ahead of Harish Rao’s PowerPoint presentation, BRS working president KT Rama Rao said that the purpose of the presentation was to explain to the people the mistakes committed by the Congress in matters of river waters and the loss Telangana suffered.
Reacting to the chief minister’s comments on capital punishment, Rama Rao said that Revanth and Rahul Gandhi should be hanged many times for deceiving the people of Telangana.
“If we tally all the broken promises, it is impossible to say how many times Congress leaders should be hanged,” Rama Rao said while citing the alleged failures of the Congress, including Rahul Gandhi’s failure to fulfil the promise of providing two lakh jobs, the non-implementation of the farmers’ loan waiver in Warangal and non-implementation of 42% reservations to BCs.
Rama Rao ridiculed “those who do not know the difference between IIT and IIIT or between the Bachawat Tribunal and Brijesh Kumar Tribunal are speaking about the future of Telangana.