KTR rebuts Oppn criticism

Water Grid project

The Minister comes down heavily on the Congress for spreading falsehood; says 80 % of all habitations in the State have water connections

Hyderabad: Minister for Panchayat Raj K Tarakarama Rao on Tuesday lashed out at the Congress party for raising a hue and cry about budget for Water Grid project. The budget allocated for the project was Rs 36,000 crore. He also dared the Congress members to prove their contention that 80 per cent of habitations in the State had water connections. He said he would resign if the opposition proved it.

Giving a reply on short discussion on Drinking Water project held in Assembly, KTR recalled that last Chief Minister in the undivided Andhra Pradesh had allotted Rs 7,000 crore for comprehensive drinking water project in his home district of Chittoor. These Congressmen, who were Ministers in his cabinet, did not raise objections on such a huge allotment of fund for a single district, he said.

He challenged Congress leaders to visit any village or thanda in Telangana State and prove their claims of 80 per cent of them had water connections. Further, dismissing statements by the opposition parties about water grid project consuming huge amount of electricity, he stated that it would require just 187 MW of power.

"Telangana government is taking utmost care to ensure not a single penny of the public money goes waste," he said. Not only the government had drawn plans to connect every household with water connection but also to lay broadband lines simultaneously to facilitate internet connection to one and all, the Minister added.

Referring to the objections by AP government on each and every programme of Telangana government, he said after Palamoor project, the TDP was now conspiring to scuttle Water Grid scheme. He said the project would require just 42 tmcft of water from Krishna and Godavari rivers, he said. KTR reiterated that every household in Telangana would be provided with drinking water facility in the next three years.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had drawn up this project after successfully implementing one in Siddipet during his tenure as MLA twenty years ago.The water grid pipeline would be the lifeline for Telangana in the near future, he said.

KTR stressed on various financial institutions like HUDCO, NABARD, etc, coming forward to be part of this project. Even Centre was so impressed with the idea that it advised all state governments to explore possibility of taking up similar projects in their respective states.