HYDERABAD: BRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no moral right to visit Mahbubnagar district after denying national project status for the recently inaugurated Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme (PRLIS) which is meant to provide irrigation for the region. Modi is scheduled to address a public meeting at Mahbubnagar on October 1.
Rama Rao also highlighted that the Centre in a step-motherly manner had refused to recognise the Kaleswaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS) as a national project but had conferred the status on the Polavaram project in AP and, recently, the Upper Bhadra dam in Karnataka.
On the other hand, Modi, “repeatedly and in an unwarranted manner insults the sacrifices made by Telangana youth for separate state by questioning the bifurcation process. He owes an apology to the people of Telangana,” Rama Rao said.
He accused the Centre of sleeping over the just demand of Telangana for fresh allocation of river waters between the two Telugu states for more than nine years.
Rama Rao said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had submitted a representation to the Prime Minister on July 14, 2014, seeking the constitution of a tribunal to decide on water allocations. “We demanded 575 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet of water) and withdrew our case in the Supreme Court in 2020 after trusting the assurance of water resources minister Gajendra Singh Shekawat that the Centre would appoint a tribunal if Telangana ended litigation in the apex court,” Rama Rao said.
“We have been pressing for national project status to either Kaleswaram or the Palamuru scheme and all top BJP leaders made assurances in this regard but they all remained empty promises,” Rama Rao said. “What else can we expect from a most corrupt, incompetent and inept Prime Minister.”
The BRS leader took objection to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan rejecting the recommendation of the Cabinet to nominate two party leaders, one each from the Most Backward Classes and Scheduled Tribes, as MLCs in the Governor’s quota. On the Governor’s contention that the two were politicians and did not have a track record of social service, Rama Rao questioned the double standards of the BJP which got hardcore politicians like Jyothiraditya Scindia, Suresh Prabhu and several leaders from Uttar Pradesh nominated to the Rajya Sabha and state Legislative Councils under President and Governors’ quota.
“The Governor event cleared the nomination of Congress leaders in Karnataka,” he pointed out. Asked if the party would seek a legal recourse, he said it had been exploring all options.
On the Congress’ claim of its six guarantees programme turning out to be a game-changer, Rama Rao claimed Rahul Gandhi himself was not confident as reflected in his statement the other day that the party may “probably win” in Telangana while it was certain to win in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. “A compassionate leader like KCR will do more for the welfare of the poor than anyone in the country,” he said.
