Cong-BRS faceoff likely over river water disputes

Hyderabad: The winter session of the Assembly from Monday is expected to witness a politically charged debate on the irrigation sector as the ruling Congress and Opposition BRS and BJP are bracing to pin fault on each other over the delay in the completion of Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Project, urea shortage, poor maintenance of Residential schools and increasing crime rate in Hyderabad.

With BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao announcing the launch of a protracted struggle on the Palamuru project and public meetings in South Telangana districts, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy have planned a power point presentation on how the previous BRS government had neglected the Palamuru project and also injustice done to Telangana in the utilisation of river Krishna waters.

The Revanth Reddy government has roped in around 100 engineers of the Irrigation department to collect every detail of the Palamuru project to fix the then KCR government. Corruption in Kaleshwaram project and collapse of the three main barrages of Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla will also be raised to silence the Opposition.

Amid the reports of KCR would also attend the session, BRS leaders said that senior leader and former Irrigation minister T Harish Rao will lead the debate on Palamuru and other irrigation projects in the state. Harish was also insisting on power point presentation in the Assembly. The BRS leader is ready for a presentation in Telangana Bhavan if the government did not permit him to present the same in the House.

The BRS will also raise urea shortage, poor maintenance of residential schools, failure of fulfilling promises mainly the delay in the disbursement of Rythu Bharosa benefit to the farmers. The Opposition party would also demand the government to release the details of the Future City and investments in the recently held Global Summit.

The state government is likely to introduce some Bills, including the merger of 27 municipalities with the GHMC, amendments to the Municipal and Panchayat Raj Act in view of the ensuing MPTC, ZPTC and municipal elections in the early 2026.

Sources said that a debate on the completion of two years of the People's government in the office and the development of the state, including the fulfilment of the promises, will also be taken up during the session. Schedule for the session will be finalised in the Business Advisory Committee meeting soon after the conclusion of the first day of the session.