No direct answers to Harish Rao; Revanth Reddy sticks to accusations, ‘hang them’ slogans

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy avoided answering BRS leader Harish Rao’s questions on key irrigation issues and instead launched political attacks on former CM K Chandrashekhar Rao, even admitting that the Congress government has set aside Palamuru–Rangareddy project

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday refrained from giving any direct answers to the questions raised by former Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao on the Polavaram-Nallamala Sagar link project or why the State was slow to move against the swift strategies of Andhra Pradesh, and instead stuck to his usual practice of political accusations against former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. He even went to the extent of stating that the BRS chief and Harish Rao should be ‘hanged to death’.

More shockingly, Revanth Reddy, who alleged that Chandrashekhar Rao did not prepare a Detailed Project Report for the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation (PRLI) Project before launching it and that he had failed to put pressure on the Centre, admitted openly that the Congress government had “set aside” the project, for which Telangana had for long been demanding national project status. His government, he claimed, would instead appeal to the Centre to include the project in the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana.

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Earlier, ignoring the multiple irrigation projects that were initiated and completed by the BRS regime, from Kaleshwaram to the PRLI Project that was 90 per cent completed, Revanth Reddy alleged that Chandrashekhar Rao was responsible for the delays in irrigation projects and that the former CM was spreading lies about the projects to protect the existence of his party.

Participating in a meeting on Irrigation Department with Ministers and MLAs at Praja Bhavan here, Revanth Reddy claimed that in order to benefit contractors, the former CM had increased the cost of PRLI Project to Rs 80,000 crore from Rs 30,000 crore.

Alleging that Chandrashekhar Rao was lying about water issues, he also claimed that the former CM was spreading false information that Revanth Reddy was tacitly cooperating with the Andhra Pradesh government. Alleging that Chandrashekhar Rao and Harish Rao had worked against the interests of Telangana, he repeated his recent statement that they should be “hanged to death” for “compromising on Telangana’s water rights”.

The Chief Minister, who also focused on the former CM’s absence in the Assembly, in between tried to counter the BRS charges on involving former Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Adityanath Das in Telangana’s irrigation matters, since Das had earlier served as AP Irrigation Secretary and had filed a case in the National Green Tribunal against the PRLI Project. Stating that Das was not his relative, Revanth Reddy justified the former AP official’s appointment in Telangana claiming that Das had worked extensively on irrigation matters in undivided AP.