BRS warns of Jala Soudha siege over move to scrap Telangana projects

BRS working president KT Rama Rao warned of a Jala Soudha siege if the Centre and Congress government do not boycott the GRMB meeting on reviewing permissions for seven Telangana projects. He also criticised the Centre and State government

Hyderabad: BRS working president KT Rama Rao has warned that his party would lay siege to the Irrigation Department office at Jala Soudha if the Centre and the Congress government do not boycott the proposed meeting of the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) on the issue of reviewing permissions for seven Telangana projects.

Speaking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, Rama Rao reminded that the Centre itself had granted approvals for the seven projects during the previous BRS government. He questioned the decision to place their cancellation on the GRMB agenda following a demand from the Andhra Pradesh government. He challenged Telangana BJP MPs to boycott the meeting if they had the interests of the State at heart.

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“If the BJP’s partner from Andhra Pradesh is demanding cancellation of approvals given by the Centre, how can BJP MPs remain silent?” he asked, alleging that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was seeking to influence the Centre at Telangana’s expense. He said the BRS would fight on behalf of Telangana farmers.

The BRS working president criticised the Centre for refusing national project status to the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS). He said eight Congress and eight BJP MPs from Telangana had failed to secure national status for even a single project, dubbing them “8 plus 8 equals zero”.

He accused Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy of attempting to divert public attention through the Varuna Yagam after failing to operate pumps of various lift irrigation projects when water was needed. He demanded that the Kannepalli pump house pumps be switched on immediately.

On the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Rama Rao raised concern over the possible deletion of around 74 lakh votes and alleged anomalies in another 60 lakh. He said the BRS was preparing to ensure that genuine voters were not removed from the rolls ahead of the publication of the voter list on August 17.

He said district-level meetings had already been held and that the party was considering a State-level meeting on August 13 or 14 after consultations with BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao.