BRS all set to return into agitation mode with ‘Chalo Nalgonda’

The 'Chalo Nalgonda' meeting will also see party president and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao addressing his first public meeting after the elections and after undergoing a total hip replacement surgery that required several weeks to recover from.

Hyderabad: Nearly a decade after leading a mass agitation that led to the formation of Telangana, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (then TRS) is all set to return to agitation mode once again. This time, it is to lead fight against the handing over of the Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects on Krishna River to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) under the Centre’s control. The crucial move will be made with the party’s first major public meeting after the Assembly polls, to be held at Nalgonda on Tuesday.

The ‘Chalo Nalgonda’ meeting will also see party president and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao addressing his first public meeting after the elections and after undergoing a total hip replacement surgery that required several weeks to recover from. The BRS supremo is expected to reveal the party’s action plan to safeguard the rights of Telangana in Krishna River water, and if talk within the party is any indication, Chandrashekhar Rao is also likely to sound the poll bugle for party’s Lok Sabha election campaign. The ‘anti-Telangana’ attitude of both the BJP-led Central government and the Congress-led State government will be in sharp focus at the meeting.
Chandrashekhar Rao had been vocal about the rightful share in river waters for Telangana right from the days of the Statehood movement and also after forming the government, with efforts made towards realising that goal by completing several projects. The BRS-led State government, which was in power for 10 years, had also vehemently opposed the Centre’s efforts to take over the projects in the name of river boards.

---

Taking up the issue, the BRS is now planning to mobilise like-minded forces for another movement to protect the interests of Telangana and its people. The BRS leadership has taken up the public meeting as a prestige issue as it would be the first one since the Assembly elections to be addressed by the party chief. The meeting to be organised at Marriguda village is expected to be attended by more than five lakh people, with at least 20,000 people from each constituency covering the erstwhile districts of Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Warangal and Khammam under the Krishna river basin.

“We have been raising the issue of re-allocation of rightful share for Telangana in the river waters as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act since State formation. Following an assurance from the Centre in this regard, the then BRS (TRS) government agreed to only temporary allocation of water between both States on an annual basis, to ensure the timely release of water to our agricultural fields. However, the Centre is yet to resolve the issue and the Congress government in the State is now misleading people by handing over both the projects to the KRMB,” a senior BRS functionary pointed out.