Focus on national status for Palamuru-Rangareddy irrigation scheme: KTR to Bandi

HYDERABAD: Taking a swipe at the State BJP president Bandi Sanjay for his intention to ‘dig up mosques to find Shiv Lingas’, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao advised him to instead focus on getting national project status for the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS), so that farmers could dig (plough) their barren lands to grow crops.

Addressing a public meeting after inaugurating the newly-built bus depot, bus stand, integrated vegetable and meat market, and Panchatantra Park in Kosgi town of Narayanpet district on Saturday, he reminded the people how Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former minister late Sushma Swaraj had promised national project status to PRLIS but failed to deliver it.

Noting that the share of erstwhile AP in Krishna River waters was 811 TMC, he said that after the formation of Telangana, the State government has demanded its rightful share of 575 TMC, and had represented to the Centre several times, urging it to represent the same to the Krishna Tribunal.
Disputing Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah’s claim that the Centre had given `2,52,000 crore to the State in the last seven years, Rama Rao reiterated that the State had received only `1,68,000 crore as devolutions from the Centre. He said he was ready to quit if his claims are proved wrong and challenged Shah to prove his claim or do the same. On Congress leaders requesting the people to give the grand-old party yet another chance, he said that the people had given them 10 chances, but they could not give electricity or drinking water, and all they did was create a situation where farmers committed suicides. 

‘Revanth casteist, Bandi religious fundamentalist’
Referring to TPCC president Revanth Reddy as casteist and Bandi Sanjay as a religious fundamentalist, he said that both were trying to create a rift between people and pollute the minds of the youngsters with their divisive politics.Calling Revanth an ‘iron leg’  who ruined the political prospects of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu in Telangana, Rao said that Revanth was on the same mission after joining Congress. Countering the claims of Opposition parties that pending bills for various works in gram panchayat were not being released, he disclosed that the bills were cleared on June 2, and pointed out that it was the Centre, which had not been released `1,400 crore of its share of funds till now.

Earlier in the day, he laid the foundation stone for the construction of Peruru Lift Irrigation Scheme in Devarkadra, which would access the backwaters of the Ramanpadu project and irrigate 2,500 acres in Wanaparthy and Devarkadra constituencies. He also performed a house-warming ceremony along with 280 beneficiaries of 2BHK houses in Amistapur village of Bhootpur mandal.