Minister for Irrigation T. Harish Rao has accused the Opposition parties of conspiring to scuttle construction of irrigation projects by spreading misinformation among people of villages to be affected by the projects and also provoking them.
He alleged that TDP and CPI(M) activists from Hyderabad and Sangareddy had gone to Vemulaghat and Erravelli villages and provoked people there to plan a protest on the highway. It was non-local activists of the two parties who were also behind stone pelting on the police that led to tense situation in the submergence villages of Mallannasagar reservoir, he said here on Monday.
Addressing a press conference along with Medak MP K. Prabhakar Reddy, Narayankhed MLA M. Bhupal Reddy and others, Mr. Harish Rao said acquisition of land required for the reservoir was already completed in six out of eight villages without any opposition from people as they were convinced by the compensation offered by the government. With the fear that they would be marginalised once the land acquisition was completed in the remaining two villages and once the construction of the reservoir was taken up, the Opposition parties, including the Congress, hatched a plan to create trouble by provoking people, the Minister alleged. The police were identifying the troublemakers among the mobs in the violent incidents of Sunday and the law would take its own course in the matter.
The Minister pointed out that there was no use of police force or any case was booked against people even as the agitation against Mallannasagar was going on for the last 50 days in the submergence villages. He stated that people of Etigaddakishtapur have come forward to give away their land under the very tents where they agitated and revenue officials did not visit even one affected village during the last 10 days. He questioned the Congress whether they had constructed projects without any submergence and why they had kept quiet when 21 villages of Nalgonda district were submerged due to Pulichintala project benefiting only Andhra region and 20 villages of Karimnagar and Adilabad were submerged by Yellampally barrage. He said Medak district bandh called by the Opposition parties was a failure as normal life was not affected.
