BRS flays Cong for taking credit for Sitarama irrigation project

Hyderabad: BRS MLA T Harish Rao said on Monday that the Congress leaders who filed cases against the Sitarama irrigation project were taking credit for completing it, whereas 90 per cent of it was completed during the previous government rule.

Addressing a press conference at Telangana Bhavan, he said that the ministers were competing to take credit for the project. “The Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy, is trying to take another credit on August 15. It was KCR who started the project as his favourite work and named it so that there should not be any obstacles. Because of the change of guard, the Congress got a chance to cut ribbons. The ministers are boasting as if they built the project,” said Rao.

He said that the people were laughing at the Congress leaders who claimed the project had been completed within seven months. “Congress leaders went to the court to create hurdles for the project. Tummala Nageswar Rao, then a BRS minister, himself said, ‘Can you put your hand on your heart and say the project is because of KCR? It’s his dream project.’ Even though many governments came, they did not try to bring the Godavari water to Khammam. KCR decided on the project to convert Khammam into a two-crop district,” said Rao. Indira and Rajiv Sagar were proposed at 3,000 cusecs; Sitarama was planned to take 9,000 cusecs.

He said, “Those who claim others’s glory are parasites. The project was 90 per cent completed during BRS’s tenure. Of the eight packages in the main canal, five were completed by the BRS government.

Hydrological and inter-State approvals for the project came during the BRS regime. Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy is lying, saying that he had obtained permission for the project. Deputy CM Batti Vikramarka should be given the Nobel Prize for stating that 1.5 lakh acres were irrigated with Rs 75 crore.”