Tuesday will see the first real face-off between Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy and his predecessor K Chandrashekar Rao since the Congress’s victory in the assembly polls last year. While the Bharat Rashtra Samithi is all set to fulfil its “Chalo Nalgonda” call and protest against the Congress government handing over Krishna river basin projects to the Centre, the CM will go to Medigadda to expose alleged corruption in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.
Politics of protests
This is the first time that KCR will address a public meeting after his party’s defeat in the assembly polls and his subsequent hip surgery. He will be spearheading the protest against handing over of the Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), which is under the Centre’s control.
The Nalgonda public meeting was called after Telangana and Andhra Pradesh agreed in principle to hand over 15 projects on the Krishna river to KRMB. Six of these are in Telangana. However, Telangana irrigation minister Uttam Kumar Reddy denied making such a decision.
‘Conditions apply’
On Monday, the state assembly passed a resolution that the projects will be handed over only if certain conditions are fulfilled. Uttam Kumar Reddy told the House: “Water sharing between Telangana and AP will depend on factors like catchment area, drought-prone area, basin population and cultivable area. In view of the historical injustice and the current situation, the House hereby resolves that the government of Telangana shall not hand over control of common projects to KRMB unless the conditions put forth by the state have been fulfilled.”
After this development, the BRS has claimed that the Congress was forced to put these conditions because of the Nalgonda meeting.
On Tuesday, CM Revanth Reddy, his deputy Bhatti Vikramarka, ministers, MLAs, and MLCs will go to Medigadda in buses, after participating in the assembly session till 10.30 am.
Last November, the Central Dam Safety Authority studied KLIS and said that pillars had sunk in Medigadda due to design flaws and quality failings.
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