Harish Rao slams government over drought preparedness

Former Minister T Harish Rao accused the Telangana government of failing to prepare for drought, citing coal shortages, power cuts and inadequate irrigation. He demanded crop compensation, relief for daily wagers, water releases from reservoirs and additional funds for drinking water needs.

Siddipet: Former Minister T Harish Rao lashed out at Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, alleging that his government was unprepared to tackle the drought in the State.

Speaking to reporters in Gajwel after visiting the dried-up agricultural crops at Burugupalli village on Thursday, Harish Rao said Revanth had failed to ensure that Transco maintained adequate coal reserves, seriously affecting power generation. During Rao’s interaction with the farmers, they broke down while explaining their struggles.

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The farmers lamented that a lack of irrigation water, unscheduled power cuts and a depleting groundwater table had led to their crops drying up. Even though the IMD and other experts had predicted poor rainfall this year due to El Nino several months earlier, Rao said the Congress had failed to take precautionary measures, such as maintaining adequate coal reserves and pumping sufficient water from both the Godavari and Krishna rivers.

He said Revanth was now trying to make people believe that all the prevailing issues were due to El Nino to cover up his failures. Stating that crops on over 12 lakh acres had dried up so far, the former minister said Revanth remained unresponsive to farmers’ struggles. While other State governments had announced compensation for farmers whose crops were damaged, apart from introducing various measures to support them, he said the Congress government in Telangana remained apathetic to farmers’ struggles.

Furthermore, he said Revanth was trying to shift the blame for power issues onto Transco staff. Demanding that the government announce compensation for farmers whose crops were damaged and provide Rs 12,000 as relief to daily wagers, Rao also asked Revanth to release water from Mallanna Sagar to save crops on nearly 20 lakh acres that would be harvested in a month.

He demanded that the Congress government lift water from Kannepalli, Devadula and Kalwakurthy to save crops and meet further needs until June. Rao also demanded that the Congress government release additional funds to Collectors to meet drinking water needs by involving elected representatives. MLC V Yadava Reddy, MLA Chintha Prabhakar and others were present.