Anantapur: The defection of MLAs notwithstanding, YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will stage a three-day protest at Kurnool against the Telangana government's new irrigation projects at Dindi and Palamur. The protesters say that the projects would adversely impact drought-hit Rayalaseema.
The three-day ‘deeksha’ from May 16 is scheduled at the party’s Jalamandali office in Kurnool. Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy is protesting against the illegal construction at Palamur in the Ranga Reddy and Dindi lift irrigation schemes on the Krishna river in Mahbubnagar districts because they would adversely affect the irrigation interests of the state, the Rayalaseema region, in particular, and also the Krishna delta.
Kurnool district YSRC observer Ananta Venkatrami Reddy told this newspaper that elaborate arrangements were made for the ‘deeksha’.
“Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his party men failed to stop the illicit projects in Te-langana because of the fear of the cash-for-vote case. Mr Naidu has in no way concentrated on the welfare of the Rayalaseema region,” Mr Reddy alleged.
With four MLAs and their close aides defecting to the TD from the YSRC in Kurnool district alone, the YSRC leaders want to make a success of the agitation.
Sources said that leaders Raghuram, Ambati Rambabu and several others were leading the arrangements with the help of the existing MLAs in the party.
Kurnool Urban MLA S.V.Mohan Reddy had defected to Telugu Desam because he said that he had received no information about the three-day protest at Kurnool which was in his jurisdiction.
The party had already received a major setback in Kurnool district in the recent past after his party MLAs — Bhuma Nagi Reddy, Akhila Priya and S.V. Mohan Reddy — defected to the TD along with their cadres in the district, and the party leadership wanted to prove its credibility on the ground.
Farmers' association leader Ananda Ranga Reddy from Anantapur district observed that the government should be serious about cracking down on illicit projects floated by the Telangana government.
