Amaravathi, July 26: Dubbing the Chief Minister, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy, as a traitor of Rayalaseema region, the TDP supremo and former chief minister, Mr Nara Chandrababu Naidu, here on Wednesday felt that the region will prosper well only if Mr Jagan is eased out of power.
Strongly condemning the rescinding of 102 projects in Rayalaseema with a single GO, Mr Chandrababu Naidu told media persons here that the earlier TDP government has spent Rs 12,411 cr in five years on the projects in the region while the YSRCP has till now spent a meagre amount of Rs 2011 cr. “We never took the caste into consideration but always went by the drought situation in the area,” Mr Chandrababu stated.
The monthly remuneration now being paid to the number of advisors to the Government and the funds being spent for publicity are far more higher than the amount spent in Rayalaseema, the TDP supremo remarked. Mr Chandrababu demanded an unconditional apology by Mr Jagan to the farmers of Rayalaseema for deceiving them.
The region faces acute water scarcity and thus the Telugu Ganga was planned by the then chief minister, the Late NT Rama Rao, to overcome this distress, the TDP national president maintained. To ensure that enough water be supplied to this drought-prone region, Mr NT Rama Rao convinced four chief ministers to get the surplus water from the Krishna river through the Telugu Ganga and even drinking water was supplied to Tamil Nadu too through this project, Mr Chandarbabu recalled. After the Telugu Ganga, he planned Galru Nagari and Handri Neeva to see to it that Rayalaseema becomes a fertile area, he said.
“After I came to power, Pattiseema was built to supply Krishna waters to Rayalaseema and this is the first step towards the interlinking of rivers which the whole country is now planning,” Mr Chandrababu said. Even a blueprint was prepared on interlinking of rivers so that the whole State can be supplied water both for irrigation and for drinking purposes, he noted. A plan was formulated to supply water till Ichchapuram had the Polavaram been completed and this is nothing but the Srujala Sravanthi, the former chief minister stated.
Pointing out that the TDP government has spent Rs 68,293 cr on all the irrigation projects between 2014 and 2019, Mr Chandarbabu said that this Government has till now spent a mere 22,165 cr. The budgetary allocation for the irrigation sector during the TDP regime was 9.63 per cent while this Government had allocated only 2.35 per cent and this too only to pay commissions to the contractors, Mr Chandrababu remarked.
The former chief minister feels that Mr Jagan has absolutely no knowledge on the importance of the irrigation sector. Observing that Mr Jagan had admitted on the floor of the Assembly that steps will be initiated to supply the Godavari waters to Srisailam and that his Telangana counterpart too had accepted the proposal, Mr Chandrababu recalled that he, with all the experience, had then made it clear that it is not possible.
Providing even the minute details on the allocation of funds for each and every project in Rayalaseema and how the money was spent on various irrigation projects during the TDP regime, Mr Chandrababu Naidu said that the ongoing works of various irrigation projects in the region in the past four years are enough to term Mr Jagan as a traitor of the region. No other chief minister till now had done such an injustice to Rayalaseema like Mr Jagan, he remarked.
Mr Jagan, without using any objectionable language, has the responsibility to answer these issues raised on behalf of the five crore people of the State, the TDP supremo said and felt that if this Government really feels responsible it should answer the public. “If no reply comes out, then the people should get ready to merge this Government in the Bay of Bengal,” Mr Nara Chandrababu Naidu said and promised to complete all the pending projects soon after the TDP is back in power.
