Stoking yet another controversy, TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao raised the pitch of his voice against giving options to employees to choose between the two new States, saying his party will fight it out in the Supreme Court if the government goes ahead with the proposal.
Mr. Rao, who had warned against options to employees on Wednesday, raised the demand again at a press conference here on Friday citing the example of Secretariat here where, he said, 85 to 90 per cent of the staff hails from Seemandhra. “Should they remain in Telangana Secretariat by virtue of option even after bifurcation,” he sought to know.
He said same yardstick applies to Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in Delhi where only three out of 200-odd employees belong to Telangana. “The prime premises should not be given to the Andhra Pradesh government at any cost,” he said.
The TRS chief criticised the Telangana leadership of Congress, particularly its president Ponnala Lakshmaiah, D. Srinivas and C. Damodar Rajanarasimha, of playing into the hands of their Seemandhra counterparts by targeting the TRS. “The Andhra leaders do not want the TRS to assume power. That’s why they are questioning me for raising the issues of employees and Polavaram project,” he pointed out.
He said he is the president of a party that would form a government in Telangana State with more than two-thirds majority.
“It’s in this capacity that I had in the past asked Andhra employees to go back to their native places and demanded redesigning of the Polavaram project to ensure that a large number of tribal habitations in Telangana are not submerged,” he said. The TRS had moved the Supreme Court against the design of the project way back in 2005-06, he recalled.
He took exception to the use of words “dora” (feudal lord) against him by Congress leaders and wondered if the feudal system still existed. Training his guns on Mr. Lakshmaiah, the TRS leader said the former as Irrigation Minister had permitted Galeru-Nagari project in Rayalaseema though it was an illegal project.
Kicking up another controversy on the water waters, he warned the TRS would stop release of water to all projects illegally constructed in Seemandhra.
“Only surplus water of projects in Telangana will be released downstream,” he said. The TRS would dig out irregularities in sale of land and allotments to corporate entities during the TDP regime. “Some of the TDP leaders cannot escape going to jail,” he warned.
