Hyderabad: In a veiled attack against BRS president K Chandrashekar Rao and former minister G Jagadishwar Reddy, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said that bringing Godavari waters to Thungathurti was not as simple as ‘pouring soda in a glass’. He took a swipe at the two leaders’ claim of achieving that within three days.

Revanth Reddy was talking after launching distribution of food security cards in Suryapet district’s Tirumalagiri on Monday. He wondered why the BRS had failed to achieve the feat while being in power for close to a decade.

“That three-feet guy (Suryapet MLA Jagadishwar Reddy) is jumping six-feet to stop the Chief Minister from visiting Thungathurti. He is claiming that if given a chance they would bring Godavari waters to Thungathurti within three days. It is ironic that when people had given them 10 years, they were unable to bring water from Devadula?” he said. While cautioning Jagadishwar Reddy that in the next Assembly elections, BRS would face a complete rout in the erstwhile Nalgonda district, a similar fate awaits them in their last remaining bastion-Suryapet.

“Bringing water is not like pouring soda in a glass. You know only one skill, pouring soda in the master’s (KCR) glass. You have managed to get your village the status of a mandal but failed to bring suitable offices. There is not even an MRO or a police station in this mandal,” Revanth Reddy said.

Revanth Reddy underlined that the Congress party would remain in power until 2034 and make Telangana a $1- trillion economy. Countering the Opposition narrative that people were struggling in long queues to receive ‘sanna biyyam’, the Chief Minister emphasised that since the present government was providing ample supply of rice to beneficiaries, there was massive response and as a result there were long queues. “Why didn’t the BRS provide ration cards? Why was there no thought of offering a morsel to the poor? Our government is giving ration cards to three crore people. If there were belt shops in villages during the BRS regime, now people would line up for ration cards,” he asserted.

He said that the present government had granted 5.6 lakh ration cards to new beneficiaries. “We have registered the names of 26 lakh people in new ration cards. We have distributed rice to 3.10 crore people,” he explained.

Over the government’s commitment to women empowerment, the Chief Minister reiterated that women of Self Help Groups (SHG) were contributing to TGSRTC through their ‘rental’ initiative and the government was supporting them with Rs 21,000 crore by way of loans, through various banks. He announced that the 65 lakh women of SHGs would be receiving two saris each in the upcoming distribution programme.

“After 100 years following British enumeration, we conducted a caste census in Telangana and set an example for the country. Our agitations forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to incorporate caste enumeration in the census,” he said.