Hyderabad, Jan 8 Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao on Thursday alleged that Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy deliberately stalled the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project to satisfy his "former political boss" and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, pushing lakhs of farmers in the region into distress.
Addressing a party meeting at Telangana Bhavan here, Rama Rao said the Congress government's handling of the project reflected a mix of political insecurity and administrative incompetence, which, he claimed, was directly affecting the people of the Palamuru region in Mahabubnagar district.
KTR, as the BRS leader is popularly known, said that nearly 90 per cent of the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project was completed during the tenure of former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR).
"Only the canal works were pending, which could have been completed swiftly to make the project operational. Instead of finishing the remaining portion, the Congress government cancelled tenders, halted all works and has refused to restart construction," he said.
According to KTR, the reason behind the delay was neither technical nor financial, but purely political. He alleged that Revanth Reddy did not want KCR to receive credit for delivering water to Palamuru and feared that lifting water from the Krishna River would upset his former political mentor.
Recalling what he described as the "historic moment" when KCR inaugurated the 145 MW pumps at Narlapur to lift Krishna waters, KTR said the people of Palamuru had witnessed genuine development under the BRS regime.
In contrast, he accused the present Chief Minister of indulging in political vendetta by stalling the project. He said the delay was especially harsh at a time when farmers in the region were facing acute water scarcity and widespread crop holidays.
KTR also criticised Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for what he termed a lack of basic understanding of irrigation and water resources. He alleged that a Chief Minister who had publicly claimed that the Bhakra Nangal dam, located in Himachal Pradesh, was in Telangana, had no authority to lecture KCR on river basins or irrigation policy.
He further claimed that even senior Congress leaders were unaware of the river basins to which major Telangana projects such as Devadula belonged, raising serious questions about the government’s ability to manage critical irrigation infrastructure.
The BRS leader also took aim at the Congress government's performance over the past two years, describing the period as one marked by what he termed lies, demolitions and deliberate destruction.
He alleged that the government had abandoned its six guarantees, misled the public with hundreds of promises and demolished the homes of the poor across several districts.
He further condemned the blasting of check dams constructed during the BRS regime, calling it an unprecedented act by any government. While the previous government focused on building check dams, reservoirs and water-retention structures, KTR said the Congress administration had spent the last two years dismantling them.
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