HYDERABAD: Senior Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy on Monday alleged that the Telangana government was silent over the Pothireddypadu issue despite seeing Andhra Pradesh shift the water illegally.Addressing the media here, he said if the capacity of the Pothireddypadu reservoir increases, severe water scarcity would hit Vikarabad, Rangareddy, Mahbubabad and Nalgonda districts.
“When the then Chief Minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh YS Rajasekhara Reddy tried to enhance its capacity, TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao opposed it. But now, as the Chief Minister of Telangana, KCR has been supporting the same proposal of AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy,” Shashidhar Reddy said.He asked both the Chief Ministers to reveal what type of internal agreement they made regarding Pothireddypadu. Former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy and former MLA Parigi Rammohan Reddy were present at the press conference.
Former MP AP Jithender Reddy also questioned KCR for keeping quiet when AP issued a GO to lift 10 TMC water to Rayalaseema through the Pothireddypadu and Sangameshwara projects at an estimated cost of `6,825 crore. He questioned his intention behind decreasing the capacity of the Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation project from 2 TMC to 1 TMC. He demanded the government to construct a project with a capacity of 20 TMC above the catchment area of the Jurala project and also to complete all pending projects, including the SLBC.
Don’t charge migrants air fare, says Uttam
TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy and PCC NRI cell chairman Vinod Kumar asked Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to bring back Telangana migrant workers from the Gulf without charging them for air fare and quarantine facilities.In a letter to the official, they stated that, “On May 9, an Air India flight brought 163 migrant workers from Kuwait to Hyderabad. Most of them were shifted to paid quarantine hotels that charged `1,500. Nine poor workers, who had no money, were forced to sign an undertaking that they would pay later”.
‘Govts helping only rich NRIs’
Senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir said it was unfortunate that the Centre was only bringing back rich NRIs, who can afford air fare and 14-day quarantine. He also said leaving the poor to their fate was regrettable and discriminatory.