BJP Accuses BRS of Not Submitting Proposals for Palamuru-Rangareddy LIS
Hyderabad: The war of words between the BRS and the BJP over the grant of national project status to the Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme (PRLIS) continued on Sunday, with the latter accusing the state government of not submitting any proposal to the Centre on the project.
Karimnagar MP and former state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar alleged that the BRS government did not allocate a single tmc ft of water to the PRLIS in addition to agreeing for 299 tmc ft as the state’s share in Krishna waters against its rightful claim of 575 tmc ft. “How can the Central Water Commission approve a project when the state government did not allocate any water,” he questioned.
The BJP leader was responding to a tweet by BRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao who posted a video grab of a 2014 poll campaign meet addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the video Modi is seen ridiculing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s assurance to grant national project status to PRLIS, asking why the “ma-beta sarkar” slept over the proposal during the 10-year UPA rule.
“Back in 2014, you had questioned the UPA Govt about their indifferent attitude towards Palamuru irrigation projects and asked if they were sleeping for 10 years! Today, after seeing 10 years of BJP's apathy towards Mahbubnagar, I want to show the mirror to you. What assistance did you give to Palamuru irrigation projects in the last ten years,” Rama Rao said. Maintaining that Central assistance was a big zero, the minister quipped that that would be the number of seats the people would give the BJP.
In a counter tweet, Sanjay, referring to a reply given by the Union Jal Shakti minister on March 19, 2003, in the Lok Sabha, said the BRS government was “apparently busy with the Kaleshwaram scam” ignored sending proposals for inclusion of both projects in the national project scheme. The state government submitted a revised detailed project report on PRLIS just six months ago, he said adding that the government had been scrambling with last-minute patch-work without obtaining any pre-requisite approvals to claim national project status.
