Cong, BRS enacting political drama over river water issues: Union Minister Sanjay Kumar

Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Thursday alleged that ruling Congress and opposition BRS in Telangana were trying to divert public attention from their failures by making accusations at each other over river water issues.

They are enacting a ''political drama'' with a tacit understanding by making challenges and counter-challenges over the utilisation of river waters.

He was referring to the Congress government making a PowerPoint presentation in the legislative Assembly recently alleging that the previous BRS regime caused injustice to Telangana in Krishna and Godavari river waters, which was countered by BRS.

Congress does not want people to discuss the implementation of its six poll 'guarantees', while BRS wants to avoid public scrutiny on its alleged corruption. The two parties are trying to divert public attention, he said.

It was the BJP which fought for safeguarding Telangana's interests in river waters, said Sanjay Kumar, Union MoS (Home).

Observing that the BJP ''fought a battle'' for protecting the state's interests in utilising Godavari and Krishna river waters when he was the BJP's Telangana unit president during COVID-19, he said Congress did not take up any struggles on the ground then on water issues.

''It was Congress and the BJP that deceived Telangana in water issues from the beginning. The two parties are criticising each other, which is nothing but a drama,'' he told reporters in Karimnagar.

During the long Congress rule in undivided Andhra Pradesh, Telangana never utilised even 200 TMC feet of water from Krishna, though the state had an allocation of 811 TMC of water, he charged.

In Godavari river waters, undivided Andhra had a share of 1,486 TMC, but only more than 500 TMC feet was used in the Telangana region during the Congress rule, he said.

Referring to criticism of BRS and Congress that the NDA government at the Centre did not accord national status to the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy irrigation project in Telangana, Sanjay Kumar said previous UPA government did not include the project in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act Had the project been included in the Act, it would have been insulated from any objections to its construction, he said.

Six projects were included in the Act, but Palamuru-Ranga Reddy was not among them, he said.

Alleging that K Chandrasekhar Rao caused great injustice to Telangana in river waters during his tenure as the chief minister, the BJP leader said KCR had agreed to a share of 299 TMC for Telangana in Krishna river waters (leaving 512 TMC for Andhra Pradesh).

On Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy's recent comments that he got the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to stop the construction of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) by speaking to his Andhra counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu, Sanjay Kumar said it was the NDA government that halted the project construction through the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).

''Congress and BRS should state whether they have any proof to show that they stopped RLIS. Did you stop?'' he asked. The RLIS would have adversely affected Telangana's interests, he said.

On the Congress government handing over the probe into alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project during the previous BRS regime to the CBI, Sanjay Kumar said the government should clarify whether the investigation should cover alleged Rs 1.50 lakh crore corruption or into loss of Rs 9,000 crore in the construction of three barrages of the project.

The NDA government would like to ensure justice to all the states, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)