HYDERABAD: Slamming BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao over the issue of handing over irrigation projects to the KRMB, CM A Revanth Reddy on Sunday said that though 68 per cent of Krishna river flows in Telangana, KCR settled for 299 tmcft of waters while the state’s “rightful share” is 512 tmcft.
KCR agreed to hand over the Krishna and Godavari waters to KRMB when the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, was passed, the chief minister said.
Using expletives against the former chief minister, Revanth asserted that the losses incurred by Telangana during KCR’s regime far exceeded the cumulative losses the region suffered under all rulers in the undivided Andhra Pradesh.
The chief minister also pointed out that the “Policy Statement on the demand for grant on irrigation and command area development department 2023-2024” (a budget document on irrigation), prepared by the then CM and finance minister KCR, explicitly outlined that “the state of Telangana has proposed to hand over only the components of the common projects, namely Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar in the Krishna basin and Peddavagu Medium Irrigation Project in the Godavari basin.
Alleging that it was KCR who transferred the projects to KRMB, Revanth challenged the former and senior BRS leader T Harish Rao for a two-day debate during the upcoming Budget session of the Assembly.
He made it clear that the Telangana government hasn’t officially handed over the projects to KRMB. The government has, in fact, written to the Centre requesting a correction in the minutes of the meeting.
Challenging BRS leaders to substantiate their arguments in response to the proposed white papers, Revanth assured that KCR and Harish Rao would be given the microphone without interruption for the maximum time requested.
“KCR you come to the Assembly without giving any lame excuses. Debate the issue, instead of staging protests in Nalgonda. It will be proved who is a traitor,” he added.