Minister for Agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has accused the Congress leaders of conspiring to stall the construction of the Mallannasagar reservoir with an ulterior motive.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, he said that the TRS Government was not forcibly taking land from farmers and asserted that the farmers voluntarily came forward to give the land. About 1,400 farmers in many villages had already given the land for the project and they were happy with the compensation, he claimed.
The Minister said that the project once completed would irrigate 40 lakh acres in four districts besides filling Nizam Sagar Project and Sri Ram Sagar Project.
The NSP remained almost dry for most of the time in the last three decades as 47 small and big projects came up in Karnataka and Maharashtra, he said.
Knowing well the problem the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao embarked on the job of redesigning the Pranahitha-Chevella Project to ensure utilisation of maximum amount of water in Godavari from Kaleswaram, he said and added that sufficient quantity of water would not be available at Tummidihatti originally planned by the Congress Government.
Jealous of the overwhelming response coming to the Chief Minister’s new plan and also fearing loss of their credibility among people Congress leaders with political ill-will were deliberately creating hullabaloo.
If five villages were submerged in the project it could be able to provide water to 5,000 villages, said the Minister.
Suggesting the Congress leaders to extend support to the good deeds of the Government to be in public life, Mr. Srinivas Reddy warned them that if they continued to politicise the issue they would get washed away in next elections.
Zilla Parishad Chairman D. Raju, MLA B. Ganesh Gupa and Mayor Akula Sujatha were also present.
