MEDAK: BRS leader T Harish Rao on Friday alleged that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy should be held responsible for the present drought conditions in the state because the latter ignored even the scientists’ warnings on the El Nino phenomenon.
“The state is witnessing a drought not because of lack of rainfall. It is solely due to Revanth Reddy’s negligence. The Congress government failed to lift water even though plenty of it was available in the Godavari and Krishna rivers,” he said.
“The chief minister ignored the warnings from scientists about El Nino and released 20 tmc of water from the Singur project downstream under the guise of repairs. Because of that, people are left without even drinking water now,” he added.
Harish Rao, along with local MLA V Sunitha Laxma Reddy, inspected withered crops in the Narsapur Assembly segment and interacted with farmers.
Later, speaking to the press, the former irrigation minister alleged that Revanth Reddy and his Cabinet colleagues were “acting as if the people of Telangana do not matter to them at all”.
On the recent Cabinet meeting, he said: “The state Cabinet failed to discuss matters related to the payment of compensation to farmers even though the government officially admitted that crops in over 25 lakh acres had withered due to drought have withered due to drought.”
He wondered why the state government was not crediting immediate relief of `5,000 directly into the farmers’ bank accounts as is being done by the governments of the neighbouring states like Karnataka and Maharashtra.