Revanth hits out at BRS, BJP on sand mafia

WARANGAL: TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy on Wednesday took up the issue of sand mafia and hit out at both the BJP and the BRS leaders. He questioned the former minister and Huzurabad BJP MLA Etala Rajendar regarding the steps taken to control the sand mafia.

“Rajendar had earlier announced that he was going to “declare a war” against the BRS party for its irregularities. Then, why is he not taking on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s relatives even as they are exploiting the Manair river,” Revanth asked.

After completing the ‘Haath Se Haath Jodo’ padayatra in the erstwhile Warangal district, the yatra entered the erstwhile Karimnagar district on Wednesday. Before beginning the yatra in the Huzurabad constituency, Revanth offered prayers at Sri Ramachandra Swamy temple at Ellanthakunta and later inspected the sand dumps in Ippalapalli village.

Speaking on the occasion, Revanth said that in order to expose the sand mafia and how the Manair river was exploited by the BRS party leaders, Congress leaders were inspecting the sand dumps.

He said that if locals or farmers try to stop the illegal transport of sand from the Manair river, then they are threatened by the police.

Revanth alleged that IT minister K. T. Rama Rao was behind the death of a youth who obstructed the sand mafia in the Nerella of Rajanna Siricilla district. “Also, MP Joginipalli Santosh and his father Ravinder Rao are earning crores from the sand mafia. With one permit, four lorries of sand are transported. As per the rules, the mining of sand should not be done using JCBs. If the sand mining in this region is not stopped, then the entire region will turn into a desert,” Revant added.