BRS Puts Palamuru Project Protests on Back Burner
With elections to the mandal and zilla parishad posts expected to follow soon after, the BRS has for now set aside its agitation plans for the PRLIS, sources said.
Hyderabad: The BRS has postponed its planned action programme to press the Congress government to complete the Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme (PRLIS). It has instead shifted focus the municipal elections expected to be held sometime this February.
With elections to the mandal and zilla parishad posts expected to follow soon after, the BRS has for now set aside its agitation plans for the PRLIS, sources said.
BRS president and former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had on December 19 announced that the party would launch an agitation and organise public meetings in Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts to hold the Congress government accountable for its “failure” to complete the project. Declaring that it was time for him to “step in”, he had warned that “there will be no more niceties” on this front. The agitation on PRLIS, which Rao said he would lead, would be the start of the BRS’ mass movement plans on irrigation related issues.
His announcements led to a flurry of back-and-forth between the Congress and the BRS, with each side accusing the other of wrongdoing and neglect of the project, along with river water-sharing subjects. It figured in the recent Assembly session which the BRS boycotted.
“The Palamuru project protests will be held as and when it becomes possible, but for now, the party has to gear up for the municipal polls. We want to keep the momentum going, especially after doing well and winning around 40 per cent of positions in the gram panchayat elections. It is up to KCR to decide when the BRS will shift gears to irrigation issues,” a senior BRS leader said.