HYDERABAD: Accusing the previous government of completely neglecting the Palamuru region, Tourism, Culture and Excise Minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Tuesday said that the BRS leaders have no moral right to speak about the PRLIS and other irrigation projects.
Addressing the media, along with fellow Cabinet member Vakiti Srihari and MLAs from erstwhile Mahbubnagar district, at the CLP office here, the minister said that former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had laid the foundation stone for the Palamuru project in 2015 and promised to complete it within two years but failed to do so.
He asked how the BRS could claim that 90 per cent of the project was completed when only Rs 25,000 crore had been spent on a project estimated to cost nearly Rs 1 lakh crore over 10 years. He also asked how the Kaleshwaram project, which was launched later, was completed with an expenditure of nearly Rs 1 lakh crore while Palamuru remained incomplete.
Krishna Rao alleged that the previous government had shown discriminatory attitude towards several irrigation projects, including Gattu, Kalwakurthy, Jurala, Koilsagar and Bhima projects.
He said the BRS government had even failed to repair the pumps under the Kalwakurthy lift irrigation scheme and could not secure proper water allocations for the Palamuru project. He accused the previous regime of “mortgaging” Krishna river waters to Andhra Pradesh.
Srihari alleged that the Ryalampadu reservoir in Gadwal was not restored during the decade-long rule of BRS.
Stating that MLAs and ministers had personally discussed the Palamuru irrigation projects with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, he said “Chief minister also belongs to the Palamuru region. The government is giving special attention to the projects and is committed to completing all the pending works.”