Hyderabad: The war of words between TRS and Congress and TD leaders continued on Thursday over the agreement with Maharashtra and over Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s threat to jail leaders levelling false allegations of corruption.
While TRS leaders, led by endowments minister A. Indrakaran Reddy, tried to dismiss the criticism, saying that the agreement would help wipe out water scarcity in the state, the Opposition continued its onslaught against the CM.
“The agreement will go a long way in providing the much-needed water for irrigation and drinking. It’s mutually beneficial,” Mr Indrakaran Reddy said.
TRS MP Balka Suman challenged Congress leaders to prove corruption in irrigation projects.
TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy along with Bhatti Vikramarka and others slammed the CM over the agreement with Maharashtra and his threat of jail.
Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy, who vowed to expose the “lies and falsehood” of Mr Rao on irrigation projects, said that the CM mortgaged the interests of the state by shifting the main project from Thummadihatti to Medigadda.
“KCR is behaving like an agent of the BJP government of Maharashtra. TS government gave up seven mandals, two lakh acres of land and the fate of lakhs of tribals to AP to construct Polavaram, but we failed to seek just 3,000 acres for submergence from Maharashtra to build Pranahita-Chevella,” he said.
Congress has convened an expert talk and discussion on Pranahita-Chevella and Kaleshwaram projects on Friday at the Gandhi Bhavan. He said by shifting the project to Medigadda, the capital cost has gone up by over Rs 50,000 crore, besides the annual recurring cost of '15,000 crore in the guise of Kaleshwaram project.
“Congress will not be a mute spectator to this open loot of public exchequer. We will expose country’s biggest scam,” Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said. “KCR is behaving like a street fighter. He entered signed an MoU and reduced dam height as per Maharashtra’s demands. After the Congress comes to power, we will raise the dam height to 152 metres,” Mr Vikramarka said.
