The BRS chief announced a state-wide action programme to call the government to account not only on irrigation issues but also on all other sectors in which he said it had failed miserably.
Published Dec 21, 2025 | 9:38 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 21, 2025 | 9:38 PM
KCR chaired a joint meeting of the BRS Legislature Party and the party’s State executive at Telangana Bhavan on Sunday.
Synopsis: Bharat Rashtra Samithi supremo K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday took aim at the ruling Congress in Telangana and announced a statewide campaign to hold it accountable. Addressing a joint party meeting in Hyderabad, KCR accused the State government of betraying Telangana’s interests and said he had exercised restraint for the past two years but could no longer remain silent.
After remaining silent for the last two years, BRS president and former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has decided to take on the Revanth Reddy-led Congress government in the state head on.
Chairing a joint meeting of the BRS Legislature Party and the party’s State executive at Telangana Bhavan on Sunday, 21 December, KCR announced an action programme to call the government to account not only on irrigation issues but also on all other sectors in which he said it had failed miserably.
“There will be no more niceties. We will flay the government alive. There is no need for us to remain silent. Why should we, when the interests of the people are at stake?” he declared.
“From tomorrow, it is going to be a different story altogether. This state government has failed on all fronts (sarva brashta prabhutvam).”
He announced that there would be an aggressive campaign against Congress rule in the state.
“There will be village-to-village mass movements and public meetings across Palamuru, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts,” he said, adding that he would personally participate in the programmes to confront what he termed an “inactive and insensitive government” in the public domain.
“We will not let the government sleep. If it fails to protect the state’s interests, we will tear into it,” he said.
KCR launched a blistering attack on both the Centre and the Telangana government. He said he had exercised restraint for the past two years but could remain silent no longer as injustice to Telangana continued to mount.
He said the incumbent government remained a mute spectator when the Centre returned the DPR of the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme and, worse still, that the State government wrote to the Centre saying an allocation of 40 tmcft of water was sufficient.
He recalled that when the BRS was in power, it had sought an allocation of up to 170 tmcft, including an additional share of 40 tmcft on account of Andhra Pradesh diverting Godavari water to the Krishna through Pattiseema.
Addressing the media after the meeting, he said the BRS carried a dual responsibility, as the party that achieved statehood for Telangana and as the principal Opposition.
Empty rhetoric and token criticism would no longer do, he asserted, adding that the party would now hold the government accountable at every step and confront it before the people.
He said consultations with district leaders would begin within the next two to three days, followed by large-scale village-level meetings.
Poets and folk singers would be mobilised to awaken public consciousness.
“We have remained quiet for too long. Not anymore. For Telangana, we are ready to fight anyone. We are not afraid,” he said, asking how he could stay silent when such “brazen wrongdoing” was unfolding.
KCR said the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme was conceived to free Telangana from historical injustice. He said Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts lie in the Krishna basin, with every drop of rain ultimately draining into the river, forcing the State to fight for its rightful share of Krishna waters.
This, he said, led to a strategic push for a tribunal on water reallocation. In parallel, the PLIS was conceived with a target of drawing 173 TMC ft.
Taking into account objections from Andhra Pradesh and other constraints, he said detailed calculations were made and submitted to the Centre.
Based on the Bachawat Tribunal provisions and after factoring in minor irrigation losses, an initial requirement of 90.81 TMC ft was proposed, with scope for enhancement as additional allocations accrued.
The project was sanctioned at an estimated cost of ₹35,000 crore, of which nearly ₹27,000 crore was spent, completing about 88 to 90 per cent of the works.
Anticipating disputes with Andhra Pradesh, high-capacity 145 MW pumps were installed to draw water swiftly. These pumps were specially designed by BHEL.
Despite hurdles in land acquisition and permissions, about 27,000 acres were acquired. The project, he said, stood as a testament to the BRS government’s determination to rescue Palamuru from decades of neglect.
KCR also took a swipe at the present government, alleging that it had failed to come up with even one policy that genuinely served the public interest.
“There is not even a single sound policy. The government appears more interested in illegal real estate dealings,” he charged.
Dismissing the ‘Future City’ concept, he said cities evolve over time and cannot be conjured up overnight. “You cannot build a city by merely pitching tents,” he remarked, recalling how Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad had grown gradually over decades.
He described the MoUs signed at the recent Global Summit in Hyderabad as a sham, likening them to the MoUs signed during the Partnership Summit held at a star hotel in Visakhapatnam during the Chandrababu Naidu-led government’s 2014 to 19 tenure.
“Those MoUs were signed by cooks of the hotel. These are no different,” he said.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
