Harish Rao lashes at Chandrababu Naidu on rice claim

Finance Minister T Harish Rao lashed out at TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu for his claim that the TDP government had brought rice to Telangana

Siddipet: Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Friday lashed out at Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu for his claim that the TDP government had brought rice to Telangana.

Addressing the gathering in Jagadevupr on Friday, Harish Rao said Telangana had become the rice bowl of South India as Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao completed a host of irrigation projects. He said the farmers of Telangana had cultivated paddy in 54 lakh acres in the current Yasangi while Andhra Pradesh had cultivated the crop in just 16 lakh acres.

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The Minister credited the increase of area under irrigation in Telangana to the Chief Minister and pointed out that there were days when a pot of drinking water was a dream during summer in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. Now, streams and tanks were overflowing in Telangana even during mid-summer as the government had released Godavari water into them.

Exposing Naidu’s claims, the Minister said the TDP chief would not hesitate even to claim that he had constructed Charminar. Coming down heavily on Naidu for saying that Telangana people used to eat only ragi, jowar and millets until he became the Chief Minister. Saying that Chandrashekhar Rao had rewritten the history of the State, Rao said the Chief Minister had completed the mammoth Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), besides providing 24×7 free power supply to the farm sector.

“Even the Chairman of the Foxconn industry Young Liu has invited the Telangana Chief Minister to give a presentation on Telangana’s growth in the last decade after seeing the power presentation given by Chandrashekhar Rao,” Harish Rao said.

The Minister later presented awards winners of a cricket tournament organised to mark the Chief Minister’s birthday in Jagadevpur.