PCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy has declared that the Congress party is ready to face lathis and bullets for the sake of farmers who are in distress and unrest in the State. He warned the State government that Congress would not tolerate negligent attitude of the TDP government towards farmers who were facing crisis in East and West Godavari districts due to lack of water for rabi season.
Addressing media conference before leaving to Polavaram major irrigation project site on Tuesday along with former Union Ministers M.M. Pallam Raju, J.D. Seelam and Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, the PCC president said that Congress party was only demanding two main assurances from the State government, one was to give water to each and every acre in the State in the rabi season and secondly, complete Polavaram project by 2018 at any cost.
He said that paddy in 25 lakh acres was damaged in torrential rains in November in coastal districts in kharif season .
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Mr. Raghuveera lashed out at Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu indirectly and said that Pattiseema project was not useful to the people of Rayalaseema. “Who asked you to build Pattiseema? We, the people of Rayalaseema are having self-respect and not going to beg or harm any one by asking a single drop of water from Godavari districts?” -he said.
He recalled that during the Congress rule, they have given irrigation water to all 23 districts in rabi season.
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Later motorcade led by East Godavari DCC president Kandula Durgesh, former Minisers Vatti Vasantha Kumar, former TTD chairman Kanumuri Bapiraju, Dokala Murali and others left for Polavaram project site, where the PCC president and other Congress leaders took clay and oath to fight for completion of the project before 2018.
Raghuveera says people of Rayalaseema have not asked for Pattiseema water