Hyderabad: BJP leaders took strong objection to Minister KT Rama Rao's remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the minister has no other topics to discuss to get media attention. Rama Rao has recently termed PM Modi a trickster.
Reacting to the comments D.K. Aruna, national vice president, BJP said, “KTR keeps making allegations against the BJP whenever he goes to Mahaboobnagar district. The BRS government changed the design of the PRLIS (Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme) project and did not even submit the DPR until six months back. The project designed to draw water from Jurala was shifted to Srisailam. The PRLIS doesn’t have an assured allocation of water. K Chandrashekar Rao accepted the allocation formula of 299 TMC of water to Telangana of the 811 TMC available in the Krishna river.”
Enough water is available at Jurala and the state can draw flood water from there without interruption and permissions, unlike Srisailam which both AP and Telangana have ownership. Telangana is not utilising the 299 TMC water allocated to the region by completing projects. BRS is interested in projects with huge costs as they can bag commissions. The government has not paid compensation to farmers for the land acquired from them. Canals to bring water to the fields have not been dug, she said.
Alleging negligence of projects she said, “KCR who made a big noise about Rajolibanda diversion scheme which can irrigate 87,000 acres in Alampur assembly constituency by spending just Rs 796 crores has been neglected. Budget allocation was not made for the project of 15.9 TMC capacity and it is pending for nine years now. He is thinking of throwing money and winning the polls.”
BJP state general secretary Gujjula Premender Reddy alleged, “The BRS leaders have no agenda. The State government did not follow the norms for the PRLIS project to be accorded national status. The Centre provided loans at concessional interest rates and permissions were also given. The comments are being made with an eye on votes. The central government has given Rs. 9 lakh crores so far to the Telangana State government. The state government's budget allocation for development works is only Rs 50,000 crores to Rs 60,000 crores per year and the rest of the funds are utilized for salaries and other payments. BJP will keep its promises and for Telangana, a double-engine government is needed, he said adding that the BRS is on the verge of losing.
