KCR inaugurating incomplete irrigation projects with eye on votes: Jago Telangana

ADILABAD: Members of the ‘Jago Telangana’ activist movement on Monday alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is inaugurating incomplete irrigation projects like Palamuru Rangareddy, with an eye on votes in the upcoming assembly polls.

They recalled that irrigation officials conducted a wet run of the Korata-Chanaka barrage without completing its canal works and without paying compensation to the lands acquired under the barrage in Adilabad.

The Jago Telangana said there was no allocation of funds for the maintenance and management of the irrigation projects. It also criticised the political forces that are “promoting hatred” among the people on communal lines.

A group of activists under the banner of Jago Telangana tried to spread awareness among the people about the corruption in the implementation of schemes and how “rulers” have failed to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Telangana in the last nine years.

Addressing a meeting in Adilabad, Retired IAS officer Akunuri Murali said the state government was hood-winking the people by inaugurating the incomplete irrigation projects just before the elections. How can the state government claim they have completed the construction of the Palamuru Rangareddy project, he asked.

“Only one pump was operated for four hours out of a total of 31 pumps of the project. Tenders were not called for the canal system and there was no reservoir for the project yet. Still, it was inaugurated in erstwhile Mahabubnagar by KCR,” he said.

He said the project would not give water to even a single acre and it would remain just a monument without the completion of works. The project was started in 2015 at an estimated cost of Rs 35,000 crore, he added.

Murali said people residing downstream of the Kadam Project and on the banks of River Godavari are living in fear since the Kadam project was frequently facing flood threats.

‘There is no proper maintenance and management of the Kadam project despite the project facing danger every now and then, and posing a life threat to the people of downstream areas and those living near the project,” he said.

He said an in-depth study was required on farmer suicides so as to initiate steps to end such tragedies in the state.

Retired high court judge, B Chandrakumar, said the people of Telangana must unite and fight for their rights in various fields. Just talking about the failures of the state government will not yield the expected results, he said.

Activist Dr Pruthvi Raj said lakhs of unemployed youths are frustrated due to a lack of recruitment for government jobs in Telangana and noted that hundreds of teaching posts were lying vacant in the state universities.

“It is high time for the unemployed youths to fight for their rights. Very few government recruitments were done by the Telangana Public Service Commission and it has turned out to be a fraud,” he said.

Another signatory, Prof Vinayak Reddy, said Dalits and Adivasis were being cheated in the name of welfare schemes such as the Dalit Bandhu, the 3-acre land for Dalits scheme, etc., without the government making any budgetary allocations for these.

“There is no political representation for the Dalits proportional to their population in the state government. Social activist and irrigation expert Nainala Govardhan and writer Sky Baba were among those who spoke.