HYDERABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader T Harish Rao demanded Chief MinisterbRevanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who are travelling to Delhi on Sunday, to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to safeguard Telangana's water rights.
He asked. "The question before them is simple. Will they stand up to the Prime Minister on Telangana’s water interests, or will they bow their heads?"
He said Revanth and Uttam would be remembered as leaders who failed Telangana if they compromised the state’s interests and agreed to whatever Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu proposed. “Settle this with the Centre and then come back to the state,” Harish said.
Harish claimed that the Sammakka Sarakka project had secured hydrology clearance for 47 TMC ft, with only TAC approval pending, despite the Central Water Commission returning its DPR.
He said the NWDA had prepared the Godavari-Cauvery link DPR, from Ichampally to the Grand Anicut, at Telangana’s request, with Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karnataka approving the proposal.
Alleging that the Centre had yielded to pressure from Naidu, Harish said the alignment had been shifted from Polavaram to Banakacherla to accommodate a financially unviable project that benefited only Andhra Pradesh.
“If Revanth and Uttam fail to protect Telangana’s water interests, BRS will not sit and watch. We will expose every conspiracy to trample on Telangana’s rights before the people.
We will build another people’s movement for this state, and we will protect Telangana’s water rights,” Harish declared.
In a post on X, BRS working president KT Rama Rao demanded that Rahul explain the delay in fulfilling the Congress’s promises to Telangana.
He wrote “Lies, damned lies and then there is the Congress election manifesto ‘Abhaya Hastam’. Mr @RahulGandhi, since you’re in Hyderabad enjoying at the expense of Telangana exchequer, why don’t you answer simple questions about 420 promises, 13 declarations & 6 guarantees?"
KT Rama Rao posted the criticism on social media on the day when Rahul Gandhi was in Hyderabad to attend the gig-workers rally with CM Revanth Reddy.
