KTR: Musi 'murky' drama is brainchild of Rahul Gandhi

Hyderabad: BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Wednesday alleged that the Musi Riverfront project was a scam not by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy but by the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi; he is behind all the drama going on in the State.

In an informal interaction (chit chat) with the media at Telangana Bhavan, Rao alleged that Rahul Gandhi, who was opposing bulldozers in other States, was sending them to the State. ‘Rahul Gandhi needs money for the ensuing elections in five States; he sees Telangana as the ‘golden duck’ to mint money. The party has no chance in Karnataka because its CM is facing cases’, he quipped.

KTR said, “Why is he not coming to the State in spite of people getting displaced with the Musi project? Why the government needs Rs 1.5 lakh crore for the project. Did the government take up a public hearing? Was any social assessment done? Without providing rehabilitation, people are being made homeless. What is the return on the Rs 1.5 lakh crore; how is employment going to be generated.” He alleged it was not Musi beautification but ‘lootification’.

The BRS leader said, “Real estate was down in the State thanks to HYDRA and ‘RR tax’. Already there is RR (Rahul, Revanth) tax in the State. Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law was also in the State recently.” He claimed, “Percentage was fixed by people like Fayeem Qureshi, Uday Simha Reddy, Rajender, and AV Reddy; hence, realtors were afraid of bringing projects.”

KTR said that he would soon give a PowerPoint presentation on the Musi development project proposed by the BRS government. “The project was conceived with a cost of Rs 16,000 crore. It is shameful that Minister D Sridhar Babu had no clue on the cost, which was approved by the Cabinet,” he added.

He pointed out that while the Namami Gange project was costing Rs 17 crore per km, the Musi was costing Rs 2,700 crore. The Governor gave approval for the project, which had no DPR, which means the Centre also supporting this, KTR asserted.

Rao dared the CM to take action against officials who permitted the construction of houses. He also dared Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy to visit people near the Musi river belt without security.