The Congress on Tuesday issued a warning to government officials, especially police, with regard to alleged persecution of party cadre. The opposition party was taking note of the officials who were doing so to harass Congressmen, TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said.
Addressing a public meeting as part of the Congress Praja Chaitanya Bus Yatra at Ravindranagar village in Chintalamanepalli mandal of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district, the Congress leader said he could not be bogged down by threats of cases being foisted against his name. “I have served in the Armed Forces on the border," he said in order to drive home the point.
Talking of farmers’ issues, Mr. Reddy said his party was all for enhanced minimum support prices for farm produce. He said once his party came to power, MSP of cotton would be enhanced to ₹6,000 per quintal and that of maize to ₹2,000, turmeric and chilli to ₹10,000 and soyabean to ₹3,500 per quintal.
The TPCC president and a host of senior party leaders in the State earlier visited the site of the now scrapped Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Pranahita Chevella Sujala Sravanthi lift irrigation scheme across the Pranahita river near Tummidi-Hatti village in Koutala mandal. The leaders took a country boat ride on the river at the site of the barrage.
Addressing a press conference after the visit, Mr. Reddy promised to reconstruct the Pranahita barrage as designed originally once his party came to power.
He wondered why the TRS government had cancelled the proposed height of the redesigned Pranahita barrage at 152 ft and agreed for 148 ft.
The Congress leader pointed out that the government had done away with the name of B. R. Ambedkar in the redesigned project. How could the government drop the name of the leader who had given us our constitution, he questioned and promised that the project would be renamed after Ambedkar.
Talking about Kaleshwaram project, Mr. Reddy said the government had actually turned into a picnic spot for State and Central government officials.
He said the media were towing the government’s line without being objective.
Senior leaders Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Shabbir Ali, V. Hanumanth Rao, Sabitha Indra Reddy, T. Jeevan Reddy, Naresh Jadhav and A. Maheshwar Reddy also participated.
