Anantapur MP Ananta Venkatrami Reddy on Wednesday announced that the Congress leaders would start the Bhagiratha Yatra, starting from Malyala in the Kurnool district commemorating the release of water into the Ananta Venkat Reddy Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanthi project (AVRHNSS) from the Srisailam reservoir, on November 18.
Speaking at a press meet convened on Wednesday along with DCC president and MLA Madhusudan Gupta, he said that the paadayatra named ‘Ananta Venkta Reddy Handri Neeva Bhagiratha Vijaya Yatra’ would be kicked off by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy at Malyala from where the Congress leaders, including himself and Revenue Minister N.Raghuveera Reddy besides, leaders from the Kurnool district would walk for over 150 km until the Jeedipalli reservoir in the district.
The yatra which is set to feature the Union Minister of State for Railways Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy besides, other State Cabinet Ministers from Anantapur and Kurnool districts would started off and ended by Chief Minister N.Kiran Kumar Reddy. The yatra is expected to take around 12 days to reach the Jeedipalli reservoir .
“The AVRHNSS has been a dream for the people of the Anantapur district for the last 50 years and has seen many a struggles to realise it. We are proud that it is the Congress party that has realised this dream with the help of the people,” said Ananta Venkatrami Reddy even as he added that the success was not of the Congress party alone but to the entire political, activist and student fraternity who have fought for the project cutting across political lines.
He also urged all the political parties and others to take part in the padayatra, which he said, was a yatra commemorating the victory and not a political one to gain political mileage and added that the support from the people would ensure that the government is kept on its toes to complete the rest of the phases in the project.
On November 18, the first phase of the project, the trail run of which has already been completed would be officially declared finished and dedicated to the nation while the remaining two phases are yet to be completed.
Originally, the first phase of the project was to be completed by 2007, but ran into excesses of time and money taking more than five years of additional time and hundreds of crores of additional spending.
In all, while the project under all its phases till date has incurred an expenditure of over Rs. 4,000 crore, Rs.2,700 crore has been spent on the completion of the first phase of the project.
