HYDERABAD: The TPCC on Monday took exception to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s assertion that he had conceptualised the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation scheme.
“It was the previous Congress government which proposed the Palamur-Ranga Reddy LI project for irrigating Mahbubnagar and Ranga Reddy districts and also supplying drinking water to Hyderabad. The Congress government had drafted the plans and even conducted surveys,’’ TPCC Kisan Khet Mazdoor Sangh chairman M Kodanda Reddy and former Mahbubnagar MP Vital Rao said.
They questioned how KCR could claim that the scheme was his brainchild. “KCR is publicising that the project is his idea. It is a blatant lie,’’ they said.
Vital Rao said as Mahbubnagar MP, he had had submitted a representation to the then CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy about the scheme. Later, former CM N Kiran Kumar Reddy released `7.50 crore for a survey for the scheme, he recalled.
On AP irrigation minister D Umamaheshwara Rao and YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy opposing the project, Kodanda Reddy said the scheme was an old project and doesn’t need any new clearances.
“KCR, leaders from AP and Jagan Mohan Reddy are trying to rake up sentiments of the people and derive political mileage,’’ the Congress leaders alleged.