Khammam: Bhatti Vikramarka dares BRS netasfor debate on projects

Khammam: CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka has dared BRS rulers for a debate on the pending projects in the last 10 years. He was addressing a meeting at Kusumanchi in Paleru constituency which he entered on Thursday. He arrived to a grand welcome extended by the party constituency in-charge Rayala Nageswara Rao with their followers.

Sharpening his attack on the ruling party, Bhatti said that the Congress government completed 80 per cent of works on Indira and Rajiv Sagar projects in Khammam district. The BRS government had for the last nine years been struggling to complete even the remaining 20 per cent works, he crticisied. Had the BRS government spent Rs.1,500 crore, the Indira Rajiv Sagar project would have been completed to irrigate 4 lakh acres, he pointed out. In the name of project re-design, the cost was increased to Rs 25,000 crore but the government failed to release water supply even by one acre.

“I am ready for a debate on this subject. Do BRS rulers have the courage and conviction to come for the discussion?” he challenged. Not only Indira, Rajiv Sagar projects in Khammam district, even in Adilabad district, the BRS government failed to dig canals for 63 tanks constructed during the Congress government’s tenure. The Kaleswaram project was brought by undermining the Pranahita project and yet the KCR government failed to provide water for at last one additional acre. The State government had completed neglected to complete several irrigation projects started by late Chief Minister Rajasekhar Reddy under Jalayagnam, he pointed out.

Reeling out the anti-farmer and the anti-tribals attitude of the BRS government, the CLP leader said that while the Congress government provided rights to tribals on forest lands, the BRS government had been conspiring to evict them from the forests. Even Singareni Coal mines were put up for sale to private individuals and the BRS government did not fulfil even a single objective of the State formation, he slammed.

All that the BRS government was showing for development was constructing dividers on the roads laid by the Congress government and erecting electricity poles, he thus took a jibe at the KCR government. True development would mean constructing projects like Nagarjuna Sagar and setting up sponge iron companies. “Development means providing jobs to lakhs of people through Singareni Collieries Company, taking up new power projects, giving houses to the homeless, providing jobs to unemployed, improving education and medical fields, providing loans to unemployed youth under self-employment schemes and improving their living standards,” he said.

Asking what development was realised in Khammam district by the BRS government, the Congress leader asked people whether even one irrigation project was completed, a new industry was brought, or new jobs provided in 10 years by the State government. BRS did nothing for the district, he lamented.

Paleru MLA Kandala Upendra Reddy mortgaged votes of people in the constituency to KCR for his contracts, Bhatti alleged. Upendra Reddy who left Congress to join TRS should have resigned from the Congress party and to his MLA post before joining the TRS if he had guts, he observed. Previous Congress leaders like Sambhani Chadrasekhar, Ramreddy Venkat Reddy who were elected from Paleru never sold people’s votes like Upendra Reddy, he said.

Those MLAs strove to bring Nagarjuna Sagar water to Paleru, got houses sanctioned to the poor and worked in a way to make their constituents proud. But Upendra Reddy turned out to be a betrayer and sold himself to KCR, he said in hard-hitting criticism.

He called upon people to attend in large numbers the public meeting to be held at Khammam on July 2 to mark the conclusion of People’s March Padayatra. Congress top leader Rahul Gandhi would attend the public meeting as the chief guest and in the same meeting former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy would join Congress party. He asked people to make Khammam public meeting a mega success.