Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday ruled out giving the Rythu Bandhu sop of Rs 4,000 per acre per season to tenant farmers. Giving the sop directly to tenant farmers may give them ownership rights, he contended.
He said the TRS government was the only one in the country to spend Rs 43,000 crore per year on welfare schemes and Rs 1.50 lakh crore on irrigation and development projects. To continue this, the people should vote for the TRS in the upcoming elections.
The Chief Minister avoided criticising any party or leader, but irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, speaking at the meeting, lashed out at the Congress for planning to enter into a poll tie-up with “Telangana Drohi” TD.
He said the TD and its leader, AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, had obstructed formation of Telangana state. He was now blocking irrigation projects being built by the state by lodging repeated complaints with the Centre.
Earlier, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao laid the foundation stone for the Gattu irrigation project in Gadwal district which will provide irrigation to 33,000 acres in the drought-prone Gattu, Dharur, Koti Reddy mandals in the Gadwal constituency. The project will fill 41 tanks, he said.
He said the project which is estimated to cost Rs 553.98 crore needs to be completed at a rapid speed to end the long wait and bring home to distressed families.
The CM also inspected the progress of work at the Tummilla lift irrigation project. He directed officials to see that projects being constructed using water from the Jurala project covers 8 lakh acres in the region.
He directed irrigation officials to see that the first phase of the Tummilla project should commence from this year.
