HYDERABAD: With the click of a switch, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday released Krishna waters from one of the pumps located at the Narlapur pump house in Kollapur mandal, Nagarkurnool district, marking the beginning of the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme’s (PRLIS) first phase rollout. Amid Vedic chants, he performed pooja at the delivery cistern outlet after unveiling the PRLIS pylon near the Narlapur intake well.
Making his latest pitch for the resolution of the long-standing Krishna water-sharing issue, the chief minister blamed the Centre for not referring the matter to the Krishna Tribunal for ‘10 long years’.
Daring the BJP State leadership to convince Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get the Centre to do so if they had “any shame”, he asked them why the Union government had been so indecisive in the matter.
Appealing to the residents of Andhra Pradesh, he made it clear that Telangana was not interested in taking away their share in Krishna waters, and that it only wanted its due share to live and prosper.
Some ‘useless politicians’ obstructed PRLIS: KCR
Addressing a public meeting at Singotam Cross Roads in Kollapur town later, KCR declared that his goal was to see 20 lakh acres getting irrigated in the five districts of drought-hit Palamuru region. He believed that his life’s purpose had been fulfilled with the completion of PRLIS, envisioning Telangana as a ‘piece of diamond’ that would nourish the entire nation once PRLIS and the Sitarama project were completed, in addition to the already operational Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme.
Without explicitly naming the Congress, BJP, or their respective leaders from the Palamuru region, the chief minister pointed out that the project could have been completed three to four years earlier if not for obstructions from “useless local politicians” and a lack of cooperation from the Centre.
“I recall that even though former chief minister Anjaiah had laid the foundation stone for the Jurala project in 1981, it was only after I advocated on behalf of the people of the region in 2001 that the canal works were finally completed,” he stated.
“Today, my heart brims with the same joy I felt when the Telangana Bill passed in Parliament,” KCR said, highlighting the completion of the pump houses and reservoirs under PRLIS, with the assurance that canal work would be completed soon.
Hits out at Naidu
Subsequently, he took a dig at TDP chief and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, currently incarcerated in Rajamahendravaram Central Jail, attributing the delay in Palamuru region projects to him. He questioned Naidu’s failure to develop the erstwhile Mahbubnagar district, which he had adopted during his tenure as chief minister of the undivided Andhra Pradesh, and enquired about the fate of his claims regarding “united state and integrated development”.