"Revanth willfully delayed pumping Kaleshwaram water drying 15 lakh acres": KCR to march to Medigadda with 50k ryots

SIRCILLA: Former Chief Minister and BRS president K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) lambasted the inept handling of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) by the Revanth Reddy Government which resulted in the damage of standing crops in 15 lakh acres across the State while 50 TMC water went down the sea.

Moved by the sight of the bone-dry Mid Manair project during his ‘Polam Baata’ programme in Karimnagar district on Friday, KCR addressed a press conference here and said that Medigadda was not at all required to pump water to Yellampalli through Nandimedaram pump house to save Mid Manair.

“People of Karimnagar have enjoyed the fruits of Kaleshwaram for years after the KLIP was inaugurated in the presence of the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and Governor Narasimhan. I have created four distinct water sources for north Telangana,” he said.

Holding the Congress Government responsible for the situation in the State, KCR said that he was aghast to witness the pre-2024 Telangana scenes of dried reservoirs, power problems, water tankers, and alternative day water supply back in Telangana.

Refuting the Chief Minister’s statement that the State was witnessing a failed monsoon this year, KCR said that the rainfall was 16 per cent more than average this season. Reiterating his demand for Rs 25 lakh to the kin of 209 farmers who died by suicide, KCR released their list from Sircilla. He also demanded the release of Rs 25,000 per acre compensation for the farmers who lost everything due to the failure of crops.

Coming down heavily on the Congress Government for failing to prepare an action plan for agriculture, the former Chief Minister said that farmers had submitted photographs of their dried farms during his Polam Baata programme.

“The Government must start enumerating the crop damage. There is still water in Nagarjuna Sagar and without fearing about the KRMB, the Government should release water to save farmers of erstwhile Nalgonda district,” he said.

“Now that KCR is walking and moving around, no farmer in the State will have to suffer anymore. I will take 50,000 farmers to Medigadda and start pumping water myself,” he warned the Government.

Blaming the Congress for playing revenge politics, he said that the BRS Government would have initiated action on a company run by the kin of Komatireddy Venkatreddy that built the embankment of the Yellampalli project that washed away.

"But we moved on and worked on releasing water to farmers to save their crops,” he said.

He said that if the working of Revanth Reddy in the past four months was to be considered as a referendum for the Lok Sabha elections, then the failure to implement Rs 2 lakh crop loan waiver, Rs 500 bonus for paddy, discontinuation of sheep scheme, Dalit Bandhu, inability to implement one tola gold, old age pensions, Batukamma sarees, Ramzan Tofa, Christmas Tofa and breakfast scheme for students would be enough to defeat the Congress in the ensuing elections

Furious over ‘sell condoms’ comment

Terming the comments of Congress leaders belittling the weavers of Sircilla as inhuman, KCR said that BRS would move the court on behalf of the weavers that have supplied Bathukamma sarees and uniforms worth Rs 300 crore to the Government and were not paid so far.

“When weavers demanded money for the work they have done, the Congress leaders talk cheaply. One leader Mahender Reddy asked them to go sell condoms while another asked them to sell crunchies,” KCR said condemning the outbursts of the Congress leaders.

He sought an explanation from the Chief Minister as to why the State was reeling under power shortage and low-quality power. “The peak power requirement that Telangana witnessed recently was Rs 15,600. The addition was only 700 MW and if we add the 1,400 MW from the recently completed Ramagandum project, there should have been no outages,” he said.