He added that KCR's outburst only indicated the sense of insecurity he was feeling over the fate of BRS after the Lok Sabha elections.
Telangana Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy talks to reporters in Hyderabd on Monday, 1 April, 2024. (Supplied)
Telangana Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday, 1 April, hit back at BRS chief and former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao for his broadside against the state government that the current crisis the agriculture sector was facing was its making.
The irrigation minister told reporters at Gandhi Bhavan: “KCR dished out a tissue of blatant lies in Suryapet on Sunday after visiting standing crops. It was unbecoming of a leader of his stature and station to speak utter lies about the power and irrigation sectors.”
He added that the former chief minister’s outburst was only indicative of the sense of insecurity that he was feeling over the fate of BRS after the Lok Sabha elections.
He said: “Mark my words. After the Lok Sabha elections, BRS will disappear without any trace. It will draw a blank in the Lok Sabha polls. Only KCR and his family members will remain in the BRS. Several leaders have already left. KCR is very rattled over the turn of events.”
The irrigation minister said that BRS would go down in history as the only regional party to become extinct in such a short time.
Along with Shri Mahesh Goud @Bmaheshgoud6666, PCC Working President & Shri @RamMohanINC, Spokesman, addressed the media in Gandhi Bhavan & issued an effective point by point rebuttal of allegations made on the State Government by Fmr CM KCR in Suryapet yesterday.@INCTelangana pic.twitter.com/s7zhWbtwYP
— Uttam Kumar Reddy (@UttamINC) April 1, 2024
Uttam Kumar Reddy also told reporters that the irrigation and power sectors had never been subjected to so much looting by any government — as under the BRS in Telangana — in any state in independent India.
“The BRS government, driven by the selfish desire to mint money, raised high-cost short-term loans for the construction of huge projects like Kaleshwaram, whose Medigadda barrage piers sank into earth even when KCR was at the helm,” he said.
The Congress leader added: “KCR should hang his head in shame for the Medidgadda fiasco and the greed with which the government plundered the state in the execution of power projects.”
He claimed the BRS government had turned the Bhadradri Thermal Power project into a white elephant by opting for sub-critical technology with the result that it generates high-cost power now.
Disputing the BRS claim that there were power cuts in the state, the irrigation minister said that it was an outright lie.
He said that his government accorded top priority to ensuring uninterrupted power supply to all sectors even though it had to purchase power at a high cost.
He said that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister and Energy Minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu had issued instructions to ensure uninterrupted power supply to all categories, come what may.
Uttam Kumar Reddy asserted that KCR lacked the authority to comment on the power supply situation in Telangana.
He referred to his interaction with National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Chairman Gurdeep Singh during his tenure as a Lok Sabha member.
Uttam Kumar Reddy highlighted the previous BRS government’s apparent failure to cooperate with the NTPC in providing land and water in time for the establishment of a promised 4,000-MW power plant in Telangana despite the NTPC bearing the remaining project costs.
Uttam Kumar Reddy, who is also the civil supplies minister of Telangana, emphasised that his department had initiated the process of procuring every grain produced in Telangana by establishing 7,149 procurement centres — the highest ever in the separate state.
He stated that clear instructions had been issued to ensure that paddy was procured at the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
The minister criticised KCR for shedding “crocodile tears” over crop damages due to drought.
He revealed that when he raised a question in the Lok Sabha on crop insurance as an MP last year, he discovered that Telangana was the only state among all 29 across the country without a crop insurance programme against natural disasters.
He said the previous BRS government failed to provide any compensation or insurance to farmers throughout its near-10-year tenure.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that it was KCR who — at a meeting convened on 2 July, 2023, to assess the water levels in the Godavari and Krishna Rivers — left instructions that water release should be solely for drinking and not for irrigation.
He pointed out that by the time the Congress assumed power on 7 December, 2023, the rainy season had passed, and drought conditions had set in.
Despite these challenges, he emphasised that the Congress government had been diligently working to manage the situation to the best of its ability.
He dismissed as a blatant lie KCR’s claim that 200 farmers had died of suicide in the last 100 days because of the government’s inability to provide water and power to standing crops.
(Edited by Arkadev Ghoshal)
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