Hyderabad: As state irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy presented the White Paper in the Assembly, on Saturday, February 17, stating that the state government ‘cannot initiate’ new projects due to the rampant corruption by the previous BRS government, the floor broke into a war of words between the two major political parties.
Uttam Kumar said that due to the previous BRS government, the irrigation sector has been ruined with poor allocation of funds and no quality work.
He said the Kaleshwaram project, touted as BRS’s brainchild was just a “deceptive ploy to deceive the people of Telangana by swindling thousands of crores of taxpayers’ money.”
“The cost of cultivating land increased to Rs 11 lakh, twelve times more than the earlier cost, during the BRS government. It spent Rs 1.81 lakh crore on the irrigation project but failed to maintain cultivable land. Now, Rs 1.75 lakh crore would be needed to complete all the pending irrigation projects in the state,” Uttam Kumar said in the Assembly.
Oppn fights back
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the main Opposition party in the Telangana Legislative Assembly, rejected all the accusations made by the Congress led government.
Former irrigation minister T Harish Rao pointed out that the “figures differed at different places” in the White Paper, and “focused on mudslinging but gave no proper answers to the problems.”
Rao spoke about Congress rule during the undivided Andhra Pradesh period and highlighted it was the same Congress party that ignored the plight of Telangana farmers.
Rao was interrupted by minister Jupally Krishna Rao and deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka while explaining the irrigation projects.
