KTR accuses CM of stalling PRLIS to please his ‘political mentor’

HYDERABAD

BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao has alleged that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has deliberately stalled the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) to satisfy his former political boss, pushing lakhs of farmers in the region into distress.

Speaking at the joining programme of Congress leaders for Kollapur constituency on Thursday, he said that the Congress Government’s handling of the project reflected a combination of political insecurity and administrative incompetence that was directly costing the people of Palamuru.

He stated that nearly 90% of the PRLIS work was completed under former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao with the Narlapur, Karivena, Vattem, Edula and Udandapur reservoirs fully ready. Only canal works remained and they could have been completed swiftly to make the project operational.

The reason for keeping the project works pending was not technical or financial but political since Mr. Revanth Reddy did not want KCR to get credit for delivering water to Palamuru, fearing that drawing water from Krishna river would anger his political mentor.

Criticising the Congress Government’s performance for the past two years, KTR described it as a period marked by lies, demolitions and deliberate destruction. He said the government had abandoned its six guarantees, misled the public with hundreds of other false promises and demolished the homes of the poor across the State.

He also condemned the “blasting of check dams” built under the BRS regime, calling it an unprecedented act by any government. Expressing concern over the condition of farmers, KTR said Telangana had not witnessed urea shortage, seed scarcity, power supply disruptions as long as BRS was in office. Now, the farmers were forced to stand in long queues, often leaving slippers in place to buy urea.

He ridiculed the government’s claim that urea would be supplied on booking a mobile application, when the product was not available in shops. He pointed out that while BRS credited Rythu Bandhu 11 times (crop seasons) in a row, the Congress Government had given Rythu Bharosa only once and that too after reducing the promised amount.