Accusing the Congress government in Telangana of denying water to farmers so that they could save their crops, BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday urged the people to defeat the ruling party in the Lok Sabha elections for deceiving them with false promises.

Referring to the Congress leaders’ claim that it (the polls) would be a referendum on their government; he called the drought a man-made calamity for which the ruling party is responsible. He gave a call to the farmers to march to Medigadda to force the authorities to release water through the Kaleshwaram project.

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The former chief minister, who suffered an electoral defeat and a pelvic fracture forcing him to stay away from public life, was in vintage form as he aggressively attacked the Congress government in the state for the water crisis faced by Telangana due to near drought conditions.

“To blame the previous BRS government and show Kaleshwaram in a bad light, the Congress government wasted 50 TMC of water, allowing it to flow away into the sea, leaving the farmers to suffer,” Rao said at a press meet his meeting with the farmers of Karimnagar and Siricilla.

He also went to the Mid Manair dam which is left with little water and its bed exposed. The farmers at the Vedire village of Choppadandi mandal of Karimnagar showed Rao their crops which had withered away due to lack of water for irrigation.

The former chief minister demanded Rs 25,000 per acre as compensation for crop damage and another Rs 25 lakh as ex gratia for the farmers who had died by suicide due to agricultural distress.

“I didn’t open my mouth for four months despite the slander and fake stories doing the rounds in the media. Now, I demand that the Congress government should come to the rescue of farmers suffering from crop damage and give compensation. And if this does not happen, a spree of protests will follow,” said Rao.

He reminded the Congress that it had won only by 1.8 per cent of votes which shows that the BRS was not out (of contention).

Meanwhile, the Congress government maintained that it was ensuring drinking water supply for the people as the state had not experienced any rainfall for months.