KCR allowed RLIS completion for contractors benefit: Bandi Sanjay Kumar

Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had deliberately allowed completion of Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) to ensure that contractors get benefitted.

Bandi shot off a letter to the Chief Minister with several questions on his failure to take steps to stop the RLIS, and sought answers. Referring to the report of National Green Tribunal, which stated that majority works of the project were completed, he said the project would turn the south Telangana into a desert. "The BJP has been highlighting this, but the CM did not react on time," he said. The Karimnagar MP sought to know the steps the CM had taken to stop the project after GO 203 was released on May 5, last year for taking eight tmc ft of water every day. He recalled how the BJP took up protests in the last 15 months by taking the issue to the notice of Krishna River Management Board. "Because of the party's efforts, the Board had directed the Andhra Pradesh government to stop the project," he claimed.

"Is it not a fact that the CM allowed the project to get completed by not taking this seriously?" asked Sanjay, accusing the K Chandrashekar Rao of deliberately putting off the meeting of Apex Council only to ensure the tender process gets completed. He also said both the Chief Ministers, KCR and Jagan Mohan Reddy, had colluded and played with the lives of people by working for contractors.

Bandi added that though the Centre notified boards for the Krishna and Godavari rivers in July 2021, the boards would take control of both by October 2021. "But it is surprising that the CM did not attend a single meeting of KRMB. Is it not a fact that you have done severe injustice to Telangana by accepting 299 tmc ft though the State was eligible for 575 tmc ft? Because of your devious decisions, people of Telangana are losing the legitimate share of water from Krishna," the MP asserted.