Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday resorted to an all-out attack on his predecessor K Chandrasekhar Rao for allegedly compromising on the interests of the state and then blaming the Congress government in the state for his own decision to hand the irrigation projects to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).
Reddy challenged Rao to participate in a debate on handing over the projects to the Centre in the upcoming Budget session as the government will release a White Paper on irrigation projects.
Apparently annoyed by the recent attacks by the BRS on his government for handing over the projects to KRMB Reddy, he came out with guns blazing against the former chief minister. Armed with minutes of meetings with the Centre, he accused the Opposition leader KCR and former BRS ministers like KT Rama Rao and Harish Rao of conspiring for political gains since the decision to handover the projects had been made by the BRS government but was now blaming his government.
In the 16th KRMB meeting held on 25 July 2022, the KCR government gave its consent to hand over the irrigation projects on Krishna River to the Centre. They did not raise any objection in the next meeting of the KRMB in 2023 and even allocated Rs 200 crore each for the seed money for the maintenance of the projects under KRMB and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) in the state Budget.
“The entire process of handing over the Krishna and Godavari river projects to the Centre was done by KCR and Harish Rao,” said Reddy.
He alleged KCR had entered into a secret deal with Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and didn’t raise any objections over Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation scheme initiated by the neighbouring state to draw 8 tmc of water from Krishna River. “KCR didn’t utter a word when Jagan Mohan Reddy sent his police to take away water from Nagarjunasagar Dam even though the entire project is in Telangana,” alleged the chief minister accusing the BRS supremo of surrendering before AP chief ministers, N Chandrababu Naidu and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, for commissions.
“We are ready for discussion on handing over the projects. I am inviting all four of them – KCR, KTR, Harish Rao and Kavitha Rao (Kalvakuntla) to join the discussion and disclose the actual facts to the people. We will give enough time to KCR and Harish Rao and not even switch off their microphones,” he said.