Congress dismisses KCR’s claims on 1 Crore Acre Ayacut

Hyderabad, Aug 17 (INN): TPCC Chief Spokesperson Dr Sravan Dasoju on Wednesday gave a detailed power-point presentation, using Google Maps, to claim that the Congress party had created a huge irrigation potential of about 98 Lakh Acres in Telangana.

In his presentation, along with TPCC President N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Sravan literally countered KCR’s presentation on irrigation, point-by-point. Using Google Maps, he took around the audience on a digital journey of all major projects which were launched during Congress Rule. He dismissed the KCR’s promise of creating an Ayacut of 77.55 Lakh Acres during the next three years through the projects including Seetharama, Devadula, Kaleshwaram Pranahita, LPP, Palamuru – Ranga Reddy, Palamuru (Pending), SRSP, FFC, Medium Project in Adilabad and Nizam Sagar projects.  “Except for Palamuru- Ranga Reddy, all other projects were originally conceived during Congress regimes. But KCR is trying to add all of them into his account to mislead the people of Telangana. His plans lack originality and commitment,” he alleged.

Sravan said that the TRS Government consciously avoided completion of irrigation projects thus causing a loss of over Rs. 6,000 crore. Farmers, on average, have lost Rs. 20,000 per day due to non-completion of irrigation projects.

“TRS Govt renamed the projects only to erase the Congress party’s achievements from people’s memory. Pranahita-Chevella project, which was named after Architect of Indian Constitution Baba Saheb Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, was changed to Kaleshwaram project. Just to lure the voters in Palair Assembly by-elections, the name of saint Bhakta Ramadasu was misused and a new project was named after him just before by-polls, he said.

Sravan also slammed the TRS Government for forcibly acquiring the lands belonging to farmers in the name of re-designed projects. “The outsees are being offered peanuts for their precious and cultivable lands. Instead of implementing the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, TRS Govt is forcing the farmers to settle with less compensation as per GO 123 which was later struck down by the High Court,” he said.

“Since the Congress party had already created a huge irrigation potential for Telangana during its previous regimes, literally there was nothing left for KCR to achieve. His role would have confined to inauguration of irrigation projects launched during Congress regime. Therefore, he created an illusion that nothing existed when TRS came to power,” he said.

Sravan accused the Chief Minister of presenting distorted, irrelevant and illogical facts. “KCR proposed re-designing of projects and suggested unnecessary reservoirs only to escalate their costs and earn commissions from contractors. A Green Channel was created to swindle public money in an organised manner. Old contractors, who were accused of not being good by the TRS leaders themselves, were assigned huge contracts in blatant violation of rules and norms,” he alleged.

Hundreds of students and activists have laid down their lives to achieve statehood for Telangana. He is trying to build an empire soaked in blood of Telangana’s martyrs, he said. “KCR is often behaving in an insane manner. But his insanity is laced with a strong intent to grow rich by swindling public money,” he alleged.

In his comprehensive PPT on irrigation, the Congress leader gave a detailed account of irrigation projects in Telangana. They were primarily divided into projects constructed up to 1956, up to 2004 and 2004-2014. It also had a detailed profile of all major irrigation projects in the State with complete information about their launch to the actual commissioning. The district-wise irrigation profiles were also presented in an impressive manner.

“As the main opposition, the Congress party cannot remain a mute spectator to the robbing of public exchequer. Misappropriation and swindling of public money is nothing but treason. All irrigation projects are meant for farmers and therefore, any discrepancies in their execution directly hurts the interest of farmers. We cannot allow KCR, his family members and his party leaders to build their empires with the flesh and bones of starving farmers. Therefore, we came up with this presentation to nail KCR’s lies,” the Congress leaders said.

At the end of presentation, the Congress leaders demanded immediate completion of all irrigation projects, cancellation of all tenders, an immediate pause on re-designing of old projects, payment of compensation to all outsees as per Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and an open dialogue on these issues to uphold the spirit of democracy. He said that the Congress party would conduct a Social Audit at least once in every six months against the policies of TRS Government.

Uttam Kumar Reddy announced that the Congress party would organise ‘Black Flag’ demonstration at all District Headquarters on August 23 to protest against the signing of agreement between Telangana and Maharashtra Government over Kaleshwaram project. (INN)