Harish Rao corners government with facts and figures

The State government during the last two KRMB meetings held on January 17 and 28 had agreed to hand over components of Nagarjuna Sagar, Srisailam and Peddavagu, he said in the Assembly here on Friday.

Hyderabad: Sharing facts and figures, former Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao on Friday cornered the State government over the handing over of River Krishna projects to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), depositing pensions and salaries and other aspects.

The State government during the last two KRMB meetings held on January 17 and 28 had agreed to hand over components of Nagarjuna Sagar, Srisailam and Peddavagu, he said in the Assembly here on Friday.

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Referring to the KRMB’s minutes of the meeting, he said Secretaries of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, besides union Secretary (Jal Shakthi) had signed the documents on handing over the projects. He also shared the document copy to Speaker G Prasad and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy for their reference.

In reply, the Irrigation Minister alleged that Harish Rao was misleading the House. “The Congress has not handed over any projects and will not hand over in future as well,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said, adding that the Telangana Secretary had written a letter to the Jal Shakthi over wrong interpretation and requested to correct the mistakes.

Earlier, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy alleged that it was the BRS government which agreed to hand over the projects. To this effect, the past government had even allocated Rs.400 crore to KRMB and GRMB for operations and maintenance of the projects, he said, citing the demands for grants of 2023-24 budget.

Countering these charges, Harish Rao said only proposed allocations were made and not a single rupee was sanctioned to the Boards. Further, the BRS government had set conditions, including equal sharing rights of River Krishna water, water lifting in Pothireddypadu should be limited to 30 tmc and maintaining 830 MDDL in Srisailam, besides earmarking 20 percent for drinking water requirements, he said.

“Since the KRMB did not agree for these demands, the BRS government did not hand over the projects. The Rs.400 crore was also not released,” Harish Rao clarified.

Raising objection to Chief Minister’s charges that Andhra Pradesh government had taken over Nagarjuna Sagar project, he reminded that during polling day, the Election Commission takes control of administration in the State.

“Even after two months, the CRPF troops are still deployed on Nagarjuna Sagar and what was the Telangana government doing in this regard?” Harish Rao asked.

Countering the Chief Minister’s remarks that BRS leadership did not had faith in the MLAs, who had met him recently, the former Minister said BRS party had full confidence in its MLAs.

“Infact, the Congress high command had asked Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu to accompany you (Revanth Reddy) to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as they lacked faith,” Harish Rao said.