HYDERABAD: In a possible sign of things to come over irrigation shortfalls, and saving standing crops in the state, the opposition BRS and the government on Tuesday engaged in a war of words over each other’s ‘failures’ on ensuring interests of farmers in the state are not compromised.
While senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao, in light of protests by farmers under the Jurala project for urgent release of water, said Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was unable to save crops from drying up in his own district of erstwhile unified Mahbubnagar, irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy held the BRS responsible for the water crisis in the district.
Harish Rao told reporters that the Chief Minister was watching like a spectator while AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was taking Krishna water to Kuppam, an area which is not in the river’s basin. “While the AP CM is taking Krishna River waters 700 kilometres from Srisailam, against all established rules, Revanth Reddy is not able to get water to areas within the river’s basin in Telangana. Even the visit of ministers to meet Karnataka CM to ask for more water from Krishna is because the BRS put pressure on the Congress government,” he said.
Uttam Kumar Reddy, hitting back, said the BRS’ protests at Jurala were an attempt to divert public attention from its own failures. “Farmers are undoubtedly facing hardship, and our government fully recognises their concerns. However, the present situation is the result of El Niño-induced water scarcity and the faulty irrigation policies pursued by the BRS government for ten years,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.
The BRS, despite being in power for 10 years, failed to complete the Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, Bhima and Koilsagar projects which were vital for the erstwhile Mahbubnagar district. “The BRS also failed to complete the Palamuru–Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme which could have taken 70 TMC of Krishna floodwater from Jurala to irrigate nearly 10 lakh acres in Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts,” he said.
The BRS leaders, Uttam Kumar Reddy said, “may stage agitations, but they cannot erase ten years of neglect.”
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