KCR ignored TG in water-sharing agreements: Uttam

Hyderabad: State Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy claimed that the State government possessed adequate evidence to prove former chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao signed the documents to utilise only 298 TMC of water from the Krishna River.

The Minister alleged that the BRS leader T Harish was playing cheap politics on the water-sharing issue only to hide the injustice meted out to Telangana in the allocation of water to the State during the previous BRS regime. He accused KCR of turning a deaf ear while neighbouring Andhra Pradesh exploited Krishna water for the Pothireddypadu head regulator and Rayalaseema lift irrigation projects without proper approvals for water allocations.

Uttam said that the Congress government was protecting the interests of Telangana by strongly arguing the due share in Krishna before the Tribunal.

Referring to the issuing of new ration cards, Uttam said that the government will give ration cards to all eligible. Since the distribution of ration cards is a continuous process, he said that 40 lakh new cards are likely to be issued in addition to the existing 60 lakh cards.

Once the ration card process is completed, the government will launch the 'fine rice' distribution scheme which requires Rs 11,000 crore additionally every year to implement the scheme.

The applications received at Prajavani programme will be considered to issue new cards. Those who did not apply earlier should submit the application forms in Prajavani and gram sabhas.