Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy said that the politics surrounding the Polavaram-Banakacherla Link Project (PBLP) is a strategic political move of the Centre, to breathe life into Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), a party which he felt is at the brink of extinction.
Irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy and experts gave a presentation to Congress MLAs, MLCs and senior leaders at Praja Bhavan on Tuesday, July 1, on the projects on Krishna and Godavari basins, and PBLP being proposed by the Andhra Pradesh government.
In his concluding remarks, the chief minister accused the Centre of trying to “marginalise the Congress” by deriving political benefit from the Godavari river dispute between the two Telugu states, by creating litigation and not resolving the issue.
“Why is Kishan Reddy not taking any responsibility? He is just reading from the script given by KTR during his press conferences. Whenever we go to Delhi to meet the Union ministers, Kishan Reddy doesn’t join us, and on the other hand, he goes and meets the minister concerned a day before us,” Revanth Reddy alleged.
Revanth Reddy asked the Congress leaders to go to the villages and explain to them the injustice being done to Telangana by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won eight Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general elections.
Revanth’s suggestion to Chandrababu Naidu
To the point being raised by AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu that the state located upstream of the Godavari basin (Telangana) shouldn’t have objection to the state downstream (AP) utilising surplus waters, Revanth Reddy questioned why in that case, was AP located downstream objecting to Telangana’s projects on Krishna river upstream.
“AP is drawing 90 TMC from the Krishna river through the Pattiseema project. Telangana is supposed to get 45 TMC from that, which we can utilise for projects like Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS). But the AP government has been consistently raising objections to PRLIS, for which we are still trying to get water allocated. AP is raising objections to the assured Krishna waters of Telangana,” Revanth Reddy said.
He said that Naidu needed to cooperate, and that both sides needed to discuss across the table, with the Centre playing the role of an elder brother.
Invites BRS for a debate on PBLP
Revanth Reddy once again invited BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao to debate on the floor of the Assembly as to who did injustice to Telangana and facilitated AP to propose PBLP, and on Krishna water sharing between AP and Telangana.
He asked KCR to write to the speaker of the Telangana Assembly requesting a special session to debate the PBLP issue, assuring that even Congress will follow suit.
The chief minister reiterated his earlier claim that it was during the Apex Council’s meeting held in Delhi on September 21, 2016, that KCR had first proposed utilisation of 3,000 TMC of Godavari waters going waste and joining the Bay of Bengal.
He said the chief ministers and irrigation ministers of the two states were present at that meeting.
“Shortly after the meeting, Chandrababu Naidu took it as an opportunity and issued government orders for the preparation of a detailed project report by WAPCOS, to divert Godavari waters to Pennar basin, irrigating Rayalaseema, Nellore, and Prakasam districts in AP. In 2018, WAPCOS submitted the report giving four options, with the last option pushed as the best option, which is diverting 400 TMC from the Godavari River,” he noted.
He said that KCR met YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who later became the chief minister of AP multiple times, and also gave a presentation to Reddy at Pragathi Bhavan on how Godavari waters could be diverted by AP.
Talking about the injustice done to Telangana in Krishna river water sharing with AP, the chief minister said it was KCR who submitted in writing before the Centre in 2015, and again in 2020, that Telangana was content with being allocated 299 TMC in Krishna waters, while letting AP get 511 TMC.
“Even in that 299 TMC, we have never been able to utilise it completely. The highest water utilisation was 220 TMC. Projects like Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, SLBC, Bhima, Koilsagar and PRLIS are yet to be completed. Had those projects been completed during the decade of the BRS government, today this situation wouldn’t have arisen. But KCR never worked in that direction,” he said.
“The only achievement of KCR through the Kaleshwaram project was drawing 168 TMC to irrigate 50,000 acres by spending one lakh crore. The burden on electricity for lifting that water itself was Rs 7,000 crore, and the project needs at least another Rs 50,000 crore to be completed,” he observed.
Revanth Reddy accused KCR of sitting in the farmhouse and using the PBLP issue as a way to revive his party, which has been in doldrums after the 2023 Assembly elections.
“It is like telling lies has become a family package for KCR’s family. They were schooled to tell lies, and their very lives have been built on lies,” Revanth Reddy quipped.
