Hyderabad: Former chief minister and BRS party president K.Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday skipped attending the Legislative Assembly for the presentation of the state’s vote-on-account budget.
This decision was apparently taken to avoid the embarrassment of receiving an invitation from the government to join for the February 13 visit to Medigadda barrage. The visit was announced by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy in the Assembly on Friday.
It may be recalled that Chandrashekhar Rao was not only the chief minister but also held the irrigation portfolio from 2019 onwards, the year from when problems at the now partially sunk Medigadda barrage started coming to light and these were repeatedly taken to notice of the irrigation department’s top bosses by engineers at Medigadda as well as L&T, the contractor which built the barrage.
Chandrashekhar Rao, also the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, was expected to attend Saturday’s sitting of the House but his plans were subsequently changed.
BRS party sources said though the initial plan for the day was that he would attend the budget presentation, and then leave the Assembly soon after, word reached him that there was a possibility that Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy might meet him to extend a personal invitation to join the Chief Minister, cabinet members and other legislators in the visit to Medigadda on February 13.
BRS party sources said Chandrashekhar Rao wanted avoid this possibility and decided not to attend the budget presentation on Saturday.
