HYDERABAD: Asserting that his government will “100%” complete the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel project at any cost, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy stressed that the project will provide irrigation water to about four lakh acres.
“No matter how many obstacles we face, the government will complete SLBC 100%,” he stated, alleging that part of the tunnel collapsed due to the previous BRS regime stopping work on the project for the last 10 years.
“KCR (former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao) stopped SLBC works as they were not receiving commissions from the contractor,” he charged.
He, however, stressed that the exact cause for the accident will be known only after technical experts assess it.
In an informal interaction with reporters in Delhi, the chief minister revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi enquired about the SLBC tunnel accident and ongoing rescue efforts. He said that the PM assured further support in the rescue operations.
“So far, 11 agencies, including the NDRF and SDRF, have been working to rescue trapped workers,” Revanth said.
Terming the death in Dubai of film producer Kedar Selagamsetty, who was accused in a drugs case, the murder of N Rajalingamurthy, who filed cases against KCR alleging irregularities in the construction of the Kaleshwaram project, and the death of advocate Sanjeev Reddy, who was reportedly arguing the KLIS cases, as “mysterious”, the chief minister asked BRS working president KT Rama Rao to explain why he was not demanding a probe into these deaths.
He also alleged that Kedar was Rama Rao’s business partner. The chief minister made it clear that his government will order a probe if any complaint is received on Kedar’s death.
Revanth also alleged that the BJP was trying to arm-twist the BRS into merging with it by using cases lodged by the state government against pink party leaders.
“We lodged cases against BRS leaders regarding phone-tapping, Formula E race, sheep distribution and other matters. The Enforcement Directorate has entered the picture in the Formula E and sheep distribution cases. Why is the ED not taking any action? Regarding the phone-tapping case, we have written to the Union government to bring Prabhakar Rao and Shravan Rao, two of the accused, to India. However, there is no response from the Centre. By using these cases and protecting the BRS leaders, the BJP wants to force the BRS into a merger.”
He also alleged that the BRS was working for the BJP in ongoing MLC elections by not fielding any candidate. The chief minister further alleged that Union Minister G Kishan Reddy was a partner of KCR and was working for the BRS supremo.
“Kishan Reddy is stopping the Union government from giving approvals for the Hyderabad Metro Rail Phase-2 as he will not get credit for the project,” Revanth alleged.