Leaders demand `5,000 cr for Kanthanapally Project

Warangal: The leaders of different political parties have demanded the State Government to allocate Rs 5000 crores to Kanthanapally Irrigation Project to be built across Godavari in Warangal district. Speaking at a round-table meeting on the project organised by Communist Party of India (Marxist) here on Sunday, the leaders appealed to the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to allocate adequate funds in the State Budget in the ensuing Assembly session. The district secretaries of CPI (M) and CPI G Nagaiah and T Srinivasa Rao, TDP district unit president A Baswa Reddy, YSR Congress leader T Ramesh Babu, Lok Satta leader M Gattaiah, TRLD leader T Pradeep Goud, Forward Bloc leader E Venu, BSP leader G Shiva, S Krishna Reddy, M Srinivas and M Chukkaiah (CPM) spoke at the meeting. The leaders expressed serious concern over the delay in the execution of Kanthanapally Project. The project if completed would play a crucial role in improving the irrigation scenario in Warangal and neighbouring Khammam and Karimnagar districts, they said. For the past eight years numerous agitations were held by Left and other political parties seeking the speedy execution of the project but the government failed to act, said CPM leader Nagaiah. Even though a minister from the district Ponnala Lakshmaiah held the Irrigation Ministry, he did not bother to expedite the project. Kanthanapally Project would meet multiple purposes such irrigation, power generation and thus boosts industrial development. Hence serious agitations were needed to pressurize the State Government to execute the project at the earliest, the leaders Baswa Reddy, Srinivasa Rao, and others averred. The leaders stated that the Seemandhra leaders of both ruling and opposition parties have been trying to thwart the execution of Kanthanapally Project . To pressure on the state government the Left and opposition parties have decided to road blockades at all the mandal head quarters in Warangal on March 13.