BRS Plenary: KTR introduces resolution seeking qualitative change in country

Minister said the nation should draw inspiration from the BRS movement for achieving a separate Telangana

Hyderabad: Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said despite being replete with natural resources and being the world’s largest democracy, India was still plagued with basic issues like provision of sufficient water for households and farmers, communal differences, unemployment among others.

Introducing a resolution seeking qualitative change in the nation during the Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s (BRS) plenary here on Thursday, the Minister said the nation should draw inspiration from the BRS movement for achieving a separate Telangana.

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Despite vast cultivable lands, rivers and other resources, people in the country were suffering due to abject poverty because of the lack of vision and commitment of successive union governments, he said.

There was abundant water available in the country. About 70,000 TMC of water flows in the rivers, of which only 20,000 TMC was being utilized and the rest was draining down into the seas.

If this water was utilized effectively, water could be supplied to all the 41 crore acres of cultivable land in the nation. All these facts were shared by the union government, he said.

“As nearly 50,000 tmc is draining down into the seas, the successive union governments witnessed it as mere spectators. As a result, there severe shortage of drinking water and irrigation water” Rama Rao said.

Countries, which were smaller than India in terms of population and area, were constructing reservoirs. The world’s largest reservoir was constructed in Zimbabwe. Due to the failure of the union governments in initiating farmer-friendly policies, many ryots were dying by suicide in different States, he said.

Save for Telangana, many States were reeling under a severe shortage of water. In many cities and towns, water was being supplied once in a week, reflecting the sorry state of affairs in the country, said the Minister.